T. Sankaralingam in New Delhi on Thursday. Picture by Rajesh Kumar

New Delhi, April 10: The 50:50 joint venture between power generator NTPC and equipment manufacturer Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (Bhel) is likely to bid for future mega power projects.

Officials said the joint venture was also considering a technology partner, which could be a domestic player or a global firm.

To be registered by the end of this month, the joint venture will compete with NTPC for mega power projects.

T. Sankaralingam, chairman and managing director of NTPC, said the venture had already identified two projects. He, however, did not disclose the projects and the investments in them.

With the creation of this joint venture, the conflict between Bhel and NTPC over the latter’s proposal to enter the equipment business on its own is expected to be settled.

NTPC today announced a provisional net profit of Rs 7,129.30 crore for 2007-08, a growth rate of 3.85 per cent over the previous fiscal. The company had posted a net profit of Rs 6,864.70 crore in 2006-07.

Sankaralingam said NTPC would double coal imports to 5 million tonnes in 2008-09 to meet its capacity expansion targets.

The company with a generation capacity of 29,144 megawatts (MW) plans to add 22,430 MW by 2012 and take the total to 75,000 MW by 2017.

Chandan Roy, NTPC’s director for operations, said the company was in talks with state-run oil companies to auction for oil and gas blocks.

It is also doing feasibility studies to set up a 700 MW power plant in Nigeria.