Q&A: Arup Roy Choudhury, CMD, NTPC

New Delhi : With a generation capacity of 35,354 Mw, government-owned NTPC – the country’s largest power utility – is operating relatively unruffled amidst the crisis grappling the sector — from coal shortages and bleeding distribution companies to wary bankers. In an interview with Jyoti Mukul and Shailesh Dobhal, its Chairman and Managing Director Arup Roy Choudhury says the company is an “island" in the sector but warns against the tendency to hand big write-offs to the industry every time there is a problem.

Bankers are rattled by their investment in private independent power producers [IPPs]. They have no problem lending to NTPC. Our paying capacity is very good. We are only going for 30:70 debt equity ratio. We are taking more responsibilities ourselves. Loans for our new projects have been tied up. We also went and raised $500 million euro bonds at about 5.6 per cent (coupon rate). It was subscribed three and a half times. Recently, we tied up Rs 10,000 crore with the State Bank of India.