Industry leaders to meet PM over power crisis 

Amid a host of issues, including shortage of gas, coal, rising coal prices in domestic and international market, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is likely to meet the heads of private power
companies on January 18 to hear them to resolve hurdles.

The Ministry asked them to sort the matter with the respective buyers. The
companies are hopeful that government intervention may provide them some
relief.

Besides, the power developers are also facing problems in raising funds as
the banks are resisting disbursing finances without having coal linkages in
place. 

The 17 power firms that will be a part of the meeting with the government
represent around 90% of the total capacity of 80,000 megawatts (MW) under
implementation in the private sector. The delegation will include industrialists
who have interest in the power sector such as Cyrus Mistry, deputy chairman of
Tata Power; Gautam Adani, chairman of Adani Power Ltd; G.M. Rao, chairman of GMR
Energy Ltd; Sajjan Jindal, chairman of JSW Energy Ltd, Naveen Jindal, chairman
of Jindal Power Ltd; Prashant Ruia, chairman of Essar Energy Ltd; Sanjiv Goenka,
vice-chairman, CESC Ltd; G.V. Sanjay Reddy, chairman of GVK Gautami Power Ltd;
Sudhir Mehta, chairman, Torrent Power Ltd; and Anil Agarwal, chairman of
Sterlite Energy Ltd.