India’a leading power producer and state-owned NTPC Ltd on Monday announced it had entered into two foreign currency loan agreements with the Japan Bank for International Co-operation (JBIC) for around $430million (approx. Rs. 2,650 crore) loan for its Kudgi and Auraiya thermal power projects.
The loan agreements were signed by Kulamani Biswal, Director (Finance), NTPC and Mr. Hiroshi Watanabe, Governor, JBIC here on January 25, an official statement issued here on Monday said.
The company signed a term loan of $350 million with the JBIC to finance the supplies and services from Japan as well as India for the Kudgi Super Thermal Power Project Stage-I (3x800 MW) located in Karnataka. The facility consists of a CIRR based fixed interest tranche and a floating interest rate tranche, with a door to door maturity of about 15 years.
The second loan signed with the JBIC is for 8,021 million yen to finance the renovation and modernisation of gas turbines at NTPC’s Auraiya gas power station. This facility is a CIRR based fixed interest rate facility with a door to door maturity of over 12 years. Kudgi Power project is based on super critical technology which has lower carbon intensity compared to projects based on sub-critical technology.
In both the loans, 60 per cent of the facility amount is provided by JBIC and the balance by commercial banks. The loans are provided on a stand alone basis without any sovereign guarantee reflecting the NTPC’s strong credit quality. This is the first time JBIC has directly extended a direct loan facility to NTPC. JBIC previously extended guarantee for a untied loan of $380million for NTPC’s Barh Stage-I project.
With an installed capacity of 42454 MW through 16 coal based, 7 gas based, 2 solar renewable and 7 Joint Venture power stations, NTPC contributes nearly 28 per cent of electricity in the country, with about 19 per cent of India's installed capacity.
