L&T Power Development Company, a unit of L&T, intends to set up coal based power plants of 5,000 MW capacities by 2015 to meet the growing demand for electricity. It has planned an outlay of Rs 30,000 crore for purpose.

The company bagged a power generation project worth about Rs 9,000 crore at Rajpura in Punjab in November 2009. It has invested about Rs 500 crore in land acquisition so far for the 1,320 MW project. The company is likely to invest another Rs 2,000 crore in the project. The project is to be funded through a debt-equity ratio of 80:20. It is expected to achieve closure by the June 2010 and the first unit will be commissioned by January 2014.

The company has signed a JV agreement with Karnataka Power Corporation for the 1,600 MW (2X800 MW) coal-based thermal power project at Godhna in Chhattisgarh.

Along with the Rajpura project, the company has plans to set up plant in Orissa, Gujarat, Maharashtra and one in the South.

Besides, L&T is keen to acquire coal blocks in Australia and Indonesia to integrate its power business and to also lower the cost of generating power. Currently, it requires around seven million tonne of coal to generate 1,000 MW of power.

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L&T plans wind, hydro power foray (19-Feb-10)