In addition to this, a five-year memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the ministry of power, Government of India, and the US Department of Energy, for bilateral co-operation in the energy sector will be signed. A joint working group on power is also proposed to be set up during Mr Vajpayee's visit.

Senior government officials told The Financial Express that out of the five project development agreements, two will be signed by Power Trading Corporation (PTC) with the developers of the 3960-mw Hirma mega power project in Orissa and the 1886-mw Ennore LNG power project in Tamil Nadu.

For the Hirma project, PTC will sign the agreement with Southern Energy Asia Pacific of US and Reliance Power India. For Ennore LNG, the agreement would be signed by PTC with Unocal of USA and the Dakshin Bharat Energy Consortium (comprising Grasim Industries Ltd, Unocal USA, CMS Energy Asia, Woodside Petroleum, Australia and Siemens Power Venture GmbH, Germany).

For 513 mw Kannur power project in Kerala, an agreement will be signed between Elpaso, USA and Kannur Power Projects Co Ltd. Sources said that earlier Enron was to develop this project, however, now the state government has identified Elpaso, USA to take up the joint development of this project with Kannur Power Company.

Two agreements will be signed for the development of hydro projects in India. These are for the 330 mw, Srinagar hydel project in Uttar Pradesh being developed jointly by the G P Goenka promoted Duncans North Hydro Power Company and Synergics Energy, USA.

Another agreement will be signed for the 220-mw Tanir Bavi project in Kerala being jointly developed by PSEG Company, USA and Karnataka Power Company Limited (KPCL).

Two technical agreements will be signed with USAID. This includes one for setting up an integerated gassification combined cycle (IGCC) demo plant in India and a co-operation agreement for upgrading the facilities at National Power Training Institute (NPTI) and Central Power Research Institute (CPRI).

Officials said the Indian power delegation accompanying the Prime Minister will have senior government officials including power secretary AK Basu, besides two joint secreatries from the power ministry and Power Trading Corporation chairman TN Thakur.

From the industry, executives from Reliance Power, Aditya Birla Group, GP Goenka group, Southern Energy, AES Power, S Kumar Group, Ogden Energy, PSEG, Karnataka Power Company, Unocal amongst other power companies will be part of the delegation.

Sources said that in addition to the five agreements, four other power projects have been identified by the power ministry which will find mention in the speeches by various dignitaries.

These are the ST-CMS promoted Neyveli Lignite project in Tamil Nadu, the Unocal-promoted Gautami gas-based project in Andhra Pradesh, the AES Electricity distribution project in Orissa and the the 400-mw Maheshwar hydel project in Madhya Pradesh promoted by Ogden Energy and S Kumar's.