The Prime Minister's Office has asked the power and external affairs ministries to examine the idea of setting up a separate company for building hydel plants in Bhutan under an inter-government deal. The move is aimed at keeping a window open for flow of private investment into such projects that are envisaged to be built by Indian state-owned firms.
Sources said the directive was given by PM's principal secretary T K A Nair at a recent review meeting. India is committed to building projects, whose cumulative capacity is pegged at 10,000 mw,by 2020. For this, India will have to take up many projects at one go on a fast track basis, requiring an investment of Rs 50,000 crore. This means an investment of Rs 4,500 crore annually till 2020. Many in the government believe that committing such a size of investment every year will have an adverse impact on the country's budgetary provisions. But, Nair has said state-run firms will get preference and the separate firm will take up projects beyond the 10,000 mw that has been already committed. But, if the present arrangement is changed to a joint venture model, India may have to pay more for power it imports from such projects.
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