Mundra power is on sale for just `1

New Delhi, June 22: Tata Power has offered to sell 51 per cent stake in its 4,000 MW Mundra power project for `1 to states like Gujarat which buy electricity from it so as to rescue the debt-laden, lossmaking business.

Coastal Gujarat Power Ltd (CGPL), the Tata Power unit which operates the Mundra project, wrote to Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Ltd earlier this month offering to retain only 49 per cent stake and operate the project as a contractor provided the procurers buy all the power at higher tariffs.

In the letter, copies of which were marked to Nripendra Misra, principal secretary to Prime Minister, and Union power secretary, CGPL CEO Krishna Kumar Sharma said Mundra has accumulated losses of `6,457 crore against a paid up equity of `6,083 crore.

Besides, CGPL has outstanding loan of `10,159

■ IN 2010, the Indonesian government said that any export of coal could be done only at prices linked to international rates

■ TATAS, in turn, sought higher tariffs for power, but the plea was rejected by the Supreme Court crore and lenders have stopped further disbursal due to non-viability of the project, he wrote.

Tatas had in February 2006 won the bid for 4,000 MW Mundra project in Gujarat, quoting a price of `2.26 for every unit of electricity generated. It had intended to fire the plant with coal imported from mines owned by the Tata Group in Indonesia.