North East Watch

Shillong, December 6, 2000: The Northeastern Electric Power Corporation (NEEPCO), presently confined to generation and sale of power in the Northeastern States, plans to become a national player in power trading by expanding its business beyond the region, reports PTI.

The Corporation has started supplying 50 MW of power to West Bengal from May last and would be providing another 50 MW to that State soon, the chairman-cum-managing director of NEEPCO, PK Chatterjee told a visiting group of newsmen from Orissa recently. He said, the Corporation was also trying to sell power to Bihar and Andhra Pradesh through the Power Trading Corporation. Chatterjee said, recently a team of electrical engineers from the neighbouring Bangladesh had visited Agartala to explore the possibility of NEEPCO selling power to that country.

The negotiations would be continued and the deal might come through, he said. The Central sector utility company, which came into being in April 1976, to harness the enormous power potential in the Northeastern region, is now saddled with surplus power. Apart from lack of industrialisation in the region, there was also some problem with evacuation of power generated by the Corporation, he said.

NEEPCO is currently generating about 550 MW of power from its power projects which included Kopili Hydro-electric Project (installed capacity-250 MW) on the Assam-Meghalaya border, Assam gas-based combined cycle power project in Wokha district of Nagaland (75 MW). The installed capacity of the Corporation would go up from 700 MW to 1,105 MW by the end of the Ninth Plan as the on-going Ranganadi Hydro-electricity Project in lower Subansiri district of Arunachal Pradesh with an installed capacity of 405 MW is likely to be commissioned by September next year.

Chatterjee said, there were also a number of other power projects in the pipeline which included the 210-MW Tuivai Hydel Project and 60-MW Tuirial Hydel Project in Mizoram, 600-MW Tipaimukh Hydel Project in Manipur. The total investment in these projects would be about Rs. 9600 crore, he said. The NEEPCO CMD said, the Corporation had been given permission to take up a 500 MW gas-based combined cycle project in Tripura and a memorandum of understanding would be signed with that State Government soon.

Replying to a question as to if the Northeastern States were planning to go in for reforms in energy sector as initiated in Orissa, Chatterjee said, Meghalaya Cabinet had recently decided to set up an electricity regulatory commission. Some reforms were also contemplated by the governments of Assam, Nagaland and Mizoram, he said.

NEEPCO, which had an authorised capital of Rs 2,500 crore, had a net worth of Rs 5000 crore now. It had made a profit of Rs 27.9 crore in 1999-2000, although it faced difficulties in realising its bulk supply bills from the State electricity boards, concerned. The outstanding dues against the State electricity boards in the region stood at a staggering Rs 962 crore, the highest defaulter being Assam with Rs 652 crore. Chatterjee said, during the past seven months, NEEPCO had undertaken a special drive to realise its dues and succeeded in collecting Rs 225 crore including Rs 92 crore from Assam.