(TOI)
Country’s largest power producer National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) is looking to take over the Uttar Pradesh government’s 50% equity in the 1,320 mega watt (MW) Meja power project as it seeks to lower the cost of electricity in the state and bring about greater efficiency. Meja Utpadan Nigam is a 50:50 JV between NTPC and Uttar Pradesh Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam. Sources told TOI that an announcement is expected soon, although the size of the transaction was not immediately available.
NTPC, which has announced phasing out of 11,000MW of old and polluting power units, is looking at acquisitions such as the one it recently undertook in Rajasthan to help out states in lowering the cost of power. Recently, it decided to pay Rs 700 crore to the Rajasthan government for its stake in the 1,000MW Chhabra power plant, while taking over debt of around Rs 3,200 crore. In case of Meja, NTPC had tied up a Rs 6,600-crore loan for the project from Power Finance Corporation, which will be used to refinance costlier loans from a consortium of banks and financial institutions.
