State-owned power transmission utility PowerGrid Corporation plans to hit the capital market with its follow-on public offer (FPO) by September to raise Rs 3,500 crore. The company has lined up a capital expenditure of Rs 1,40,000 crore under the 11th and 12th Plans to finance its transmission network expansion projects.
??We have sent the proposal to the power ministry and now they will send it to the finance ministry. So it (FPO) can be expected by September,?? PowerGrid chairman SK Chaturvedi told reporters here.
The central utility has planned capital expenditure of Rs 55,000 crore in the current 11th Plan and another Rs 85,000 crore for the 12th Plan to commensurately develop its network capacity to evacuate power from generation projects envisaged by the power ministry.
While the power ministry has identified power projects worth 78,000 mw for implementation under 11th Plan, another 100 gw capacity addition is envisioned during the 12th Plan. This would require commensurate increase in transmission network capacity as well.
For example, the central utility has envisaged increasing its inter-regional transmission capacity to 37,800 mw by the end of the 11th plan from the level of 17,000 mw in 2007-08.