State-owned NHPC has plans to set up new hydro and solar projects of more than 27,000 MW capacity in nine states and neighbouring country Nepal, the company's CMD Abhay Kumar Singh said.

The new capacities would come up in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Maharashtra, and Andhra Pradesh, Singh told PTI in an interview.

NHPC is in talks with some of these states which have shown interest in the projects. Others will also be engaged for the purpose, the CMD said.

Singh said that Nepal has also shown interest in hydro projects in a joint venture with NHPC. Singh had met with the Nepal Prime Minister during his recent visit to that country.

When asked about fund availability for the projects, he said, "At present, NHPC will not have a problem in making a capital expenditure of Rs 10,000 crore. We are in profit of about Rs 3,500 crore and it will increase further to Rs 5,000 crore substantially helping us to increase our capex to Rs 13,000 crore."

Speaking further, he said there were certain NHPC projects especially in the Northeast which were stalled for a long. Efforts have been taken to resume them.

The 2,000 MW Subansiri lower hydroelectric project in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh is progressing well. In Dibang also, all hurdles have ended and the 2,880-MW dam project will begin soon.

NHPC is presently working on projects of a total of 6,000 MW capacity and another 9,000-10,000 MW is in the pipeline, Singh said.

He said the company will meet its target of 50,000 MW energy capacity which includes solar, within time.

"We have made a break up of the target by 2025, 2030, 2040 how much capacity we have to install and accordingly we will be meeting our targets. And we will reach our goal within time," the CMD said.

NHPC, under the Ministry of Power, is the largest hydropower company in India.

Source: PTI