CESC investing Rs 1,000 cr in power sector in current fiscal

Kolkata, July 28 (IANS) RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group flagship company CESC Ltd on Friday said it will invest Rs 1,000 crore as capital expenditure in the current fiscal of which Rs 600 crore will be allotted for West Bengal.

"We are investing Rs 1,000 crore in the power sector this year. Rs 600 crore would be invested for distribution network in the Kolkata unit and the rest would be for the other units," the power utility's chairman Sanjiv Goenka told reporters here on the sidelines of the company's annual general meeting.

Goenka said the company is hopeful of investing in Uttar Pradesh in the new regime under Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

"Uttar Pradesh under Yogi Adityanath becomes something that we would look at. We had presence in UP earlier but stopped the expansion looking at the political situation there. We are hoping for transparency and hope under the new Chief Minister there," he said.

About their venture in the power sector, Goekna said they would aggressively pursue distribution which is either license-based or franchisee-based instead of looking at power generation.

On the company's operation in three Rajasthan centres including Bikaner and the new distribution franchises of Kota and Bharatpur, he said that "four lakh consumers are expected to be served next year in a combined area of 381 square km with 371 MW peak load requirement".

He also said the combined business revenue in the region would be around Rs 1,300 crore that forms 16 percent of the company's total distribution revenue.

Stating that a cautious approach was the right approach, he admitted that he would not venture in the hydro power projects as evaluating such projects need a lot of time and the power utility would show more interest in renewable energy projects like solar and wind.

"CESC produces 187 MW of renewable energy through solar and wind projects," he added.