NCC Indonesia mine to feed Krishnapatnam plant by 2014

Infrastructure major NCC, formerly Nagarjuna Construction Company, is targeting to ready its coal asset in Indonesia for production by the time its maiden power project at Krishnapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, gets commissioned in 2014.

The company has been working on the assets in coal-rich East Kalimatan province of Indonesia.

“The coal supplies from Indonesia should be available by the time our first unit of 660 mw gets ready. We have so far invested about $2 million and the total investment is estimated to be at about $25-30 million,” YD Murthy, NCC’s executive vice-president (finance), told DNA.

NCC is setting up a 1,320 mw thermal power plant at Krishnapatnam after a futile effort to set up a project at Sompeta in Srikakulam district. The company had to shift the project to Krishnapatnam following a public outrage against the project.

The company is keen on blending the coal from Indonesia with the coal supplies from domestic sources. On the issue of expected shortfall in supplies from the domestic sources, he said, “We have all the documents related to coal linkages and we don’t see any issue in it.”

NCC is expecting to achieve financial closure for its power project by next month. The project would then be targeted for generating power in 39 months. The debt is said to be tied up with a consortium of lenders led by PFC and ICICI Bank. The company would raise about Rs5,400 crore as debt while Rs1,700 crore would be equity.

NCC is hopeful of recording Rs7,200 crore in turnover during the current fiscal at a growth of about 15% over the previous year. However, the company is not guiding on margins as
yet.

The company expects to win orders worth Rs14,000 crore this fiscal, of which around Rs5,000 crore will be an in-house order from the power project. The company currently has orders worth Rs16,100 crore on hand.