Power Grid's Rs 15,000 cr projects up for bidding

Power Grid Corp of India plans to put up its projects for laying new transmission networks -- worth Rs 10,000-15,000 crore -- for competitive bidding, a company executive said. "We are very keen to have private companies participate in some of our projects," chairman and managing director S K Chaturvedi told DNA Money, adding that the projects would be brought to the floor for bidding in the next 2-3 years. The state-run company plans to invest Rs 55,000 crore in establishing power transmission networks during the 11th Five-Year Plan ending March 2012. Investments of up to Rs 1,40,000 crore are envisaged to increase the inter-regional transmission capacity to 3,71,000 mw by March 2012 from 1,55,000 mw at present, in line with the projected growth in power generation capacity. State sector investments are pegged at Rs 69,000 crore out of this. Experts feel Power Grid and the other state electricity boards may not have sufficient resources to put up all the transmission networks required in the country. "In reality the state electricity boards and Power Grid Corp have their hands full, while the requirements are huge," Central Electricity Regulatory Commission chairman Pramod Deo had told DNA in March. Sources said the bank may give the role of chairperson in select subsidiaries to Kochhar. "The CEOs of subsidiaries report to their respective chairmen. By default, the CEO and MD of the bank does not become the chairman of a subsidiary. The board of the subsidiary needs to approve the appointment of a chairman," an ICICI official said, hinting that ICICI Prudential Life board may not take up appointment of new chairman at its board meeting on April 25. This, in effect, means that Kamath will continue as chairman of ICICI Prudential. The change in convention of keeping Kamath as chairman of ICICI Prudential even after he vacates the bank's CEO post was aimed at retaining Shikha Sharma, who was not comfortable with the reporting structure that was supposed to be implemented from May 1. Sharma was not available for comment when Newswire18 contacted her office.