Mumbai: L&T Power Development Company, a unit of India’s largest engineering and construction firm L&T, plans to install power plants of 5,000 megawatt capacities by 2015 to cater to the growing demand for electricity. The company expects its first power plant in Punjab to be commissioned by January 2014, senior executive vice-president AK Chaatwani told reporters on Monday.

Referring to L&T’s ambitious plans in power generation, Mr Chaatwani said that the company requires Rs 30,000 crore as total investment in power generation. The company will also start working on two other power generation projects, including one in Chhattisgarh, with the aim to reach a total generating capacity of 10,000 mw by 2019, he added.

L&T is also in race to acquire coal blocks to integrate its power business and to also lower the cost of generating power.

“We are planning to acquire coal mining blocks in Australia and Indonesia as we want to build coal linkages for our power plants,” said Mr Chaatwani. Currently, it requires around 7 MT of coal to generate 1,000 MW of power. Mr Chaatwani also said that his company will participate in auctions and long-term contracts with domestic and overseas firms as well for the coal requirements of the company.

L&T Power is planning to generate 5,000 mw of power and has tied up funds for another 5,000 mw of projects by 2015 in Rajpura, Chattisgarh and Orissa. “Along with the Rajpura project, we have plans to set up one plant in Chattisgarh and another one in Orissa,” Mr Chhatwani said. Apart from these three projects, L&T Power Development Company also has plans to set up plants in Gujarat, Maharashtra and one in the South. The Rajpura project will be funded with a debt-equity ratio of 80: 20.

The total requirement for the company to generate 5,000 mw of power would be around Rs 30,000 crore. L&T plans to set up a special purpose vehicle to undertake all its future projects, said senior executive VP R Shankar Raman.