The government of Uttar Pradesh has invited expressions of interest from private sector companies to take up majority equity stake in the five power distribution companies of the state.

The five distribution companies have a combined annual revenue of Rs.7,500 crore ($1.6 billion) and sell 25 billion units of power to 8.5 million customers in the state. The five companies cater to regions of Lucknow, Agra, Meerut, Varanasi and Kanpur.

The eligibility criteria for private sector companies are:

net worth exceeding Rs.500 crore, and
experience of owning and operating power generation plants of 500 MW or more OR managing an electricity distribution network with 0.5 million consumers or more

For more details, contact:

Reform Programme Management Organisation
Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd
15th floor, Shakti Bhavan (Extension)
14, Ashok Marg
Lucknow 226 001
Uttar Pradesh

OR

E-mail: siddhartha.das@in.pwc.com (PricewaterhouseCoopers are consultants)

Last date for submission of RFQs: 1 December 2004