PFC to give Rs.15,000 crore loan for Telangana power projects

Hyderabad, March 15 (IANS) The Power Finance Corporation (PFC) has come forward to extend Rs.15,000 crore loan for thermal power projects coming up in Telangana.

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) to this effect was signed on Sunday by the officials of PFC and Telangana State Generation Corporation (TS Genco) in the presence of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao here.

These funds will be spent for 1,080 megawatt (MW) Bhadradi plant coming up in Manuguru in Khammam district and 4,400 MW plant at Damaracherla in Nalgonda district.

On a request by the chief minister, the PFC agreed to bring down the rate of interest on this loan from 12 percent to 11.5 percent. This will save Rs.300 crore for TS Genco, said a statement from the chief minister's office.

The MoU was signed by PFC chairman and managing director M. K. Goel and TS Genco chaiman and managing director D. Prabhakar Rao.

Meanwhile, Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar told reporters here on Sunday that the TS Genco's 4,400 MW project at Damaracherla will be cleared on March 17. He said the forest appraisal committee would give the clearance at its meeting in the national capital.

The minister said the ministry has allowed diversion of 4,000 hectares of degraded forest land for the project. The state government, in exchange for the forest land, has allotted 4,000 hectares of green land at another place, which will be developed as a green forest.

Javadekar said the process for clearance of the project was completed in a record time of one month since Telangana chief minister met him in Delhi.

Stating that the environment ministry has cleared 10 projects for Telangana including four projects of Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) which were pending for last four years, he said the central government was committed to speedy development of both the states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.