Power minister Suresh Prabhu will meet World Bank president Wolfensohn on November 14 to discuss specific generation and transmission projects for which loans are being sought.

For the central sector generation and transmission projects, the power sector `Navaratana', the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), has sought a $400-million loan, the Power Grid Corporation of India (PGCIL) around $800 million, and the National Hydro-electric Power Corporation (NHPC) has asked for about $100 million loan from the World Bank.

Mr Prabhu said that in addition to loans for the central schemes, he would also put forward a proposal of extending cheap line of credit for states, who are undertaking reforms.

``States need soft loans for undertaking reforms. I am going to ask the World Bank to open a window for extending soft loans to these states.

Besides, cheap loans will also be sought for hydel projects which are long gestation projects,'' the minister said.

The PGCIL has sought a loan of $450 million for a basket of transmission projects. Negotiations for this loan were held up earlier under the power systems development projects loan (PSDP-II loan), but this loan could not be approved by the World Bank due to various reasons, including the imposition of economic sanctions. This loan is now being sought again, specifically for funding the transmission lines project associated with the Tacher-II project in Orissa.

Sources disclosed that the PGCIL has also sought a $325 million loan for funding its telecom diversification plan. It plans to import optical fibre and associated telecom equipment for establishing the backbone network in the country. The funding from the bank will help the company save the payment of customs duty to the tune of Rs 150 crore, as there is no customs duty on equipment imports for projects under multilateral funding norms.

The PGCIL is establishing a fibre backbone network and is planning to enter the national long distance (NLD) telephony venture with a strategic telecom partner as a private joint venture company. The PGCIL should lease the fibre network to the NLD venture. The bank has already endorsed these plans of the PGCIL. The Bank had approved the bidding document of the PGCIL for procurement of about 10,000 kms of optical fibre for telecom business and the awards are likely to be placed by January next, sources said.

The NTPC is also asking for a $400 million loan from the World Bank to part-finance the Talcher-II generation project. Earlier, the World Bank had delayed disbursement of the loan to this project owing to the resettlement and rehabilitation (R&R) issues involved in the project.