Hyderabad: In a major boost to Telangana state’s power generation plans, the Rural Electrification Corporation on Tuesday finalised a deal to fund the proposed 4,400 MW plant at Damarcherla in Nalgonda district with a reduced interest rate.
REC chairman and managing director Rajeev Sharma handed over a cheque of Rs 16,070 crore to Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao here on Tuesday. The REC had earlier given Rs 4,321 crore for the 800 MW plant at Palvancha in Khammam district.
With the latest amount, the total amount that the REC has sanctioned to Telangana has gone up to Rs 20,391 crore.
The REC had earlier signed a memorandum of understanding with D. Prabhakar Rao, chairman and managing director of Telangana Genco, for a total funding of Rs 24,000 crore. Of this, the REC would pay 80 per cent and the state would fill in the rest.
The REC has reduced the interest rate by 0.5 per cent as a special case for Telangana. Usually it collects 11.5 per cent interest on lending to power projects. This is the highest ever loan given by REC to a single state.
