Barely two days after a consortium led by Abu Dhabi National Energy (TAQA) walked out of an agreement to buy Jaypee Group’s two hydro power plants in Himachal Pradesh, it got a new buyer ? Reliance Power ? for its entire hydel assets.

The Anil Ambani Group company and Jaypee Group?s Jaiprakash Power Ventures on Sunday announced in a joint press statement that an initial agreement has been signed for the

former to acquire the

latter’s all three hydro power units. The asset size of the three plants with combined capacity of 1,791 MW is pegged at over R10,000 crore.

The deal could help the Jaypee Group to reduce its heavy debt burden ? the cosolidated debt of group companies is pegged at around R58,000 crore at present.

The move could make Reliance Power, which does not have any operational hydel plant at present, the country’s largest hydropower generator in the private sector.

The three plants are 1,091 MW unit at Karcham Wangtoo, 300 MW plant in Bapsa (both in Himachal Pradesh) and 400 MW Vishnuprayag plant in Uttarakhand.

Jaiprakash Associates, the holding company of Jaiprakash Power, intends to utilise the entire proceeds of the deal to reduce its outstanding debt, and thereby deleverage its consolidated balance sheet, according to the statement.

Reliance Power did not specify how it will fund the transaction.

The aborted deal with TAQA was expected to fetch Jaypee group R9,689 crore (enterprise value).

Reliance Power?s existing hydroelectric portfolio consists of 12 projects under-development with a total capacity of 5,292 MW, according to an investor presentation dated May 2014.

Jaiprakash Power said on Friday that TAQA had pulled the plug on a $1.6 billion-deal as ?a result of a change in the business strategy and priorities of the group.?

The Jaypee Group has been selling its assets since March 2013 in an effort to pare down its debt. In September 2013, it sold two of its cement facilities in Gujarat to the Aditya Birla Group?s UltraTech Cement for an enterprise value of R3,800 crore. In May 2013, it sold a 300-acre land parcel in Noida to realty firm Gaursons India for R1,500 crore. In March, it sold a controlling interest in another of its cement plants in Bokaro to the Dalmia Bharat Group for R851 crore.

As on March 31, Jaiprakash Associates had a consolidated net debt of around R58,911 crore, excluding proceeds from sale of its cement plans in Gujarat and two hydropower projects.