The 4,000-Mw Cheyyur UMPP, worth Rs 25,000 crore, is to be fuelled with imported coal. Among the private players in the fray were Adani Power, CLP India, Jindal Steel & power, JSW Energy, Sterlite Energy and Tata Power. Of these, the only four that had bought the ‘request for proposal’ document also decided not to go further in the bidding process.

The company has invited applications from state electricity boards/power generation companies, independent power producers, power plant developers and captive power producers. The earlier EOI saw an overwhelming response from the private sector. As many as 32 projects with a cumulative generation capacity of 55,000 Mw were lined up for sale to the ‘maharatna’ stature company. Of the shortlisted five projects, private consultancy KPMG is finalising the best buy for NTPC.

Given the upcoming Bihar polls, the Modi government wants see early commissioning of the project, which has been delayed by three years due to slow work by TPE, a power equipment supplier fully owned by the Russian government. Sources said TPE has told NTPC it will be able to complete the project in 2017 only. The Indian power generator is in favour of changing the contractor so that pending work could be fast-tracked.

Meanwhile the State Bank of India has filed for the settlement of a case against it to the regulator, Parliament was informed on Friday.

Dabhol will be revived. How can we afford in a country like ours to leave one project to get killed by itself. Many options are being considered and it has to be revived, NTPC Chairman and Managing Director Arup Roy Choudhury told reporters here.

“The state government has suggested to us that we should invest in solar power and we are okay with the proposal. Nationwide, NTPC has been mandated to generate 3,000 Mw solar power,” said NTPC chairman and managing director Arup Roy Choudhury after meeting chief minister Naveen Patnaik.

NTPC’s chairman and managing director, Arup Roy Choudhury today called on chief minister Naveen Patnaik and presented the proposal to the latter. But it is not clear the percentage of stake NTPC would have in the JV company.

The Coal Ministry has asked the Controller to inquire into non-mining of coal by NTPC on the basis of a complaint received from Bhu Visthapit Jagran Samiti, an association of villagers of Pakri Barwadih in Jharkhand.

We expect to acquire around 3,500 megawatts (MW) by March 2015, provided a substantial haircut is taken by the promoters and the banks. The due diligence is on for around seven or eight assets, said Arup Roy Choudhury, chairman and managing director of NTPC.

For Q2 FY15, the unaudited profit after tax was Rs 2,071.63 crore as against Rs 2,492.90 crore for the corresponding quarter in the previous year.