April 08, 2007	Sunday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 19, 2007

MUSCAT, April 7: India’s state-run National Thermal Power Corp., its largest power producer, on Saturday offered Omani investors a stake in projects requiring a total investment of $3.8 billion in southern India.

“We have identified three power projects for foreign equity participation,” said T. Sankaralingam, chairman of NTPC, India's largest power producer.

“The first power project in Kerala will cost $1.48 billion,”

Sankaralingam told a gathering of potential Omani investors.

“The two other projects in Tamil Nadu will cost $2.29 billion.” “We are thinking of offering an 11 to 25pc stake in each of the three projects,” he said, adding the projects would have a 70-30 debt to equity ratio.

The Kerala project is a 1,950-megawatt gas-powered plant and the two in Tamil Nadu are to be coal-based and with a capacity of 1000-MW each.

In October, NTPC offered Qatar's investment body a stake in the Kerala project.—Reuters