3 April 2006 - The Indian government has held talks with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) about financial assistance for five huge power plant projects, each with a capacity of 4000 MW and expected to cost around Rs150bn ($3.4bn)-Rs 200bn each.

John Samy, ADB's Deputy Director General for South Asia, confirmed that the Bank had discussed the issue with the government and assured that it would consider assisting in the projects if required.

"ADB had discussions with the Ministry of Power about the ultra mega power projects. ADB fully supports the government's initiative to ensure energy security by increasing generation capacity through diversification of energy sources," he said.

Samy said the government's plan was to have the projects financed by private sector once the project development work was completed by the special purpose vehicles established for this purpose by Power Finance Corporation.

PFC has already sought Expressions of Interest for Sasan, Mundra, Sindhudurg and Karwar projects. It has now invited pre-qualification bids for Sasan and Mundra projects.

"As a long-term development partner ADB would follow the progress of these projects with great interest and would be prepared to consider assistance should it be required," he said, adding so far the government has not sought technical assistance support for these projects.