Public sector Powergrid Corporation of India (PGCIL) today reported a five fall in its net profit for the year 2002-03 and a 1.5 per cent drop in annual turnover even as it announced a massive capital investment of Rs 70,000 crore spread over 10 years.However, Capital investment during the last year was a mere 1.7 per cent higher than in 2001-02. PGCIL CMD R.P. Singh, said: ‘‘This has been mainly due to the fact that while we have completed several projects before time, there are not too many transmission projects on the anvil as there are not many generation projects in the pipeline.’’ Singh said PGCIL undertook capital investment of Rs 2,561 crore in 2002-03, Rs 43 crore higher than the previous year’s figure of Rs 2,518 crore.The Rs 70,000 crore investment will be made during 2002-12 for supporting a generation capacity addition plan of one lakh MW while focusing on creation of a strong national power grid. Singh said the company’s net profit fell to Rs 650 crore in 2002-03 from Rs 689 crore in the previous fiscal. Singh said turnover and net profit in 2001-02 was higher due to extraordinary income of Rs 200 crore including arrears of Rs 165 crore incentive and Rs 50 crore tariff from Kishenpur-Moga.The massive capital investment is aimed at achieving a targeted GDP growth rate of about eight per cent with a plan to add about 60,000 circuit km of transmission network in 2002-12, he said.He said by the end of 2002 fiscal, the inter-regional power transfer capacity was 4,850 MW. In 2002-03, the inter-regional transfer of power was worth Rs 2,400 crore. The company has also taken up new projects worth Rs 3,700 crore including series compensation on Raipur-Rourkela line to improve its power transfer capacity, transmission system associated with Chamera-II hydro-electric project (HEP) and Tala-Siliguri transmission system to evacuate power from Tala HEP, Bhutan.
