NEWSLINKS
Y2K BIZ FEATURES
INDIA & THE W.T.O.
NEW GOVERNMENT
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
COMMENTARY
CREDIT POLICY
BUDGET 1999-2000
USEFUL INFO
ARCHIVES
SEARCH REDIFF

Reliance, Hong Kong firm to set up India's largest private power project

India's Reliance group and Hong Kong-based Southern Energy Asia-Pacific Limited have agreed to set up the country's largest private power project in the eastern state of Orissa, an official said today.

"The power station to be built at Hirma will generate 3,960 megawatts of electricity from coal and will be the largest private power project in the country," a Reliance spokesman said.

Reliance and Southern Energy will have equal stakes in the venture, he said.

Electricity will be sold to the state-owned Power Trading Corporation, which will sell it on to five other Indian states.

The company spokesman declined to give financial details of the project, saying only: "The project has been won on the basis of competitive tariff."

"Discussions are currently on to finalise the power purchase agreement and the fuel supply agreement," said the spokesman.

The project will use domestic coal and is divided into six stages. The first stage will begin commercial operation within 36 months of the financial details being agreed.

US-based Enron Corporation's power station at Dabhol, south of Bombay, is the country's largest private power project so far with total generating capacity of 2,100 megawatts.