The Hindu : Business : Railways, NTPC form joint venture

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Wednesday, Nov 07, 2007
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Railways, NTPC form joint venture

Staff Reporter

To set up 1,000 MW captive power plant at Nabinagar in Bihar

Railways will save Rs. 400-600 cr. annually
Cost of generation will be Rs. 2.13 a unit

— PHOTO: R. V. MOORTHY

POWERING THE RAILWAYS: R. S. Sharma (second from left), Director, Commercial, NTPC, and Sudheer Kumar (second from right), EEM, Railways, with the Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav (right) and Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, at Rail Bhavan in New Delhi on Tuesday.

NEW DELHI: The Railways on Tuesday signed a joint venture agreement with the National Thermal Power Corporation Ltd. (NTPC) to set up a 1,000 MW captive power plant at Nabinagar in Bihar.

The power generated from the plant — Bhartiya Rail Bijlee Company Limited — will be used for running electric trains in the eastern and western regions.

The agreement was signed in the presence of Railway Minister Lalu Prasad and Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde at Rail Bhawan here.

“The new plant will help us save Rs. 400-600 crore annually on power purchase from State electricity boards (SEBs). Power from the plant will be used in running trains in Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, while 10 per cent of power will be earmarked for other users,” said Mr. Lalu Prasad. NTPC will invest Rs. 1,188 crore in the plant, while the Railways’ contribution will be Rs. 417 crore. The average cost of generation from this plant will be Rs. 2.13 a unit.

“Nearly 18,000 route km, out of more than 63,000 route km of the Railway network, has already been electrified which constitutes 28 per cent of the total rail network carrying nearly 63 per cent of freight and 47.8 per cent of passenger traffic. The Railways are spending about Rs. 5,700 crore annually towards electric energy for traction and non-traction purposes,” he said, adding that “We want uninterrupted power supply for smooth running of the Railways in the country. We should match up with every country in terms of infrastructure in the globalisation era.”

According to Mr. Shinde, the joint venture will be mutually beneficial for both ministries in view of the ever-rising demand for power in the country.

Such cooperation would help pave the way for achieving the target of providing power to each household by the end of the XI Plan, he added.

In view of the unreasonably high tariff charged by SEBs, the Union Cabinet has approved the Railways’ proposal for availing itself of direct power supply from the Central generating agencies from the 15 per cent unallocated Central share of power.

Accordingly, the Railways has availed itself of power supply from the Dadri and Auriya power plants of NTPC in November 2000 for the Ghaziabad-Kanpur section of Northern Railway.

The Railways is saving about Rs. 50 crore annually due to implement the schemes.

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