NTPC weighs pooling of fixed charges for coal & gas projects
India’s largest power producer NTPC Ltd is considering pooling fixed charges for all its coal and gas-based projects in a move that it claims will help maximise output from stations that generate low-cost electricity and reduce consumer tariffs. “As a state-run company, it is NTPC’s responsibility to see that electricity from all our cheaper stations is dispatched first. NTPC will not benefit even a single paisa from the scheme. On the contrary, the entire benefit will be passed on to state power distribution companies,” a senior company executive said on condition of anonymity. “Fixed charges of all NTPC coal and gas-based stations shall be pooled, which means all states would pay at the same rate of fixed charges,” he said. NTPC will make a formal presentation before power ministers and top power officials of all states at a two-day conference scheduled to be held in a few weeks. Industry experts said the mechanism could benefit some states to lower costs but might increase expenditure for some. However, NTPC said the proposal will result in lower power purchase cost of all the states. Post pooling, NTPC proposes to put its lowcost stations on optimum utilisation and use its costlier power plants sparingly in ‘reserve shut down.’ Mel Ott Womens Jersey
NTPC joint venture to cut power supply to 3 states over pending dues
A joint venture of state-run NTPC has decided to snap power supply to three states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Telangana from its Vallure thermal station over non-payment of dues of Rs 1,388 crore. The NTPC Tamil Nadu Energy Company Ltd (NTECL) has issued a notice for regulation of power supply to Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Karnataka to the extent of 1,229 MW from its Vallur Thermal Power Station (1500 MW), for non-payment of long outstanding dues of Rs 1,388 crore, a source said. “The regulation or suspension of power supply shall be implemented from 00:00 hrs of April 26, 2017, and is expected to seriously affect power supply position in these states,” the source said. The NTECL, a joint venture company between NTPC and Tamil Nadu Electricity Board, is engaged in generation, transmission and distribution of electricity. The joint venture was formed for setting up a 1,500 mw coal-based power station at Vallur, Ennore in Tamil Nadu utilising the existing infrastructure facility at Ennore and supply power mainly to Tamil Nadu and also to Kerala, Karnataka and Pondicherry. Sheldon Richardson Womens Jersey
Gadkari Reviews NHAI Projects, Calls for fast Tracking of award and Construction
The Minister of Road Transport & Highways and Shipping, Nitin Gadkari has emphasized on fast tracking the award and construction of National Highways projects. In a review of NHAI projects on Tuesday, Gadkari said that while a record 16,271 km of National Highways have been awarded and 8231 km constructed during the year 2016-17, work needs to be done at a much faster pace to award more projects and construct those that have been awarded. The minister also said that there will be an award for the best performing Project Director and Regional Officer. He said the Mumbai-Vadodara, Bangalore-Chennai and Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Expressways are to be sanctioned by June 2017. Tender for 33 wayside amenities is also to be floated by June 2017. Electronic Toll Collection will be made available on all lanes on all toll plazas by 31 March, 2018. Referring to the problem of land acquisition as one of the hurdles in implementation of projects, Gadkari called for positive cooperation with the concerned state governments to tackle the issue. He also called for expeditious resolution of issues like forest clearances, appointment of independent engineers, change of scope etc. Beau Allen Womens Jersey
States can borrow directly from foreign agencies for infra projects
The Union Cabinet has approved new rules to allow financially sound state government entities to borrow directly from other countries which give Official Development Assistance for major infrastructure projects. In such cases, the state government concerned will give a guarantee and the Centre will provide a counter-guarantee. For instance, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority, a Maharashtra government entity, would be allowed to directly take an ODA loan from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for the Rs 17,854 crore Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link project. The JICA loan portion is expected to be Rs 15,109 crore. The existing guidelines did not allow direct borrowing by state government entities from external agencies. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said several state agencies were implementing infrastructure projects of national importance. These projects, even if viable and sound, have huge funding requirements. And, borrowing by state governments for such projects might exhaust their respective borrowing limits. A state government is allowed to borrow to the extent that its fiscal deficit does not exceed the limit of three per cent of its gross state domestic product (GSDP). The 14th Finance Commission provided a further flexibility of 0.5 percentage points to states, subject to stiff conditions. Under the change in rule, this additional borrowing by state entities for such infra projects will not count for the three per cent ceiling applicable on states. It allows financially sound state entities to directly borrow and repay the loan required for such major infra projects, without burdening the state exchequer, the finance minister said. The new arrangement will be subject to fulfilment of certain conditions. For instance, all repayment of loan and interest to the funding agencies will be directly remitted by the borrower concerned. External assistance plays a key supportive role in financing of many infra projects, social sector projects and in building of institutional capacity. This role has gained further significance in view of the large gap in funding requirements for major infra projects of states. At present, external development assistance from bilateral and multilateral sources is received by the Centre for projects or programmes in the central sector, for projects implemented by central public sector undertakings, and on behalf of state governments for state sector projects or programmes. The country has an estimated funding requirement of Rs 43 lakh crore ($646 billion) for infra projects over the next five years. About 70 per cent of this would be needed in power, roads and urban infrastructure. The recent N K Singh panel report on a new Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management law has recommended bringing down the combined state fiscal deficits to 2.5 per cent of their GDP in the medium term, from the current 2.98 per cent. Larry Warford Jersey