Power Grid expects to connect southern grid by January

"The project to connect the southern grid with national grid is on schedule and would be done in January 2014," the state-run company's executive director S K Gupta said on Monday.  Work is continuing on the 800-kV circuit between Raichur in Karnataka and Sholapur in Maharashtra. The first corridor from Power Grid circuit capacity would be of 2000 MW and the other circuit from private operators will have another 2000 MW capacity, he said. In the past few months there had been instances of the northern grid or the western region having had surplus power but it could not be transferred to the southern states like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Meanwhile, officials said the existing foreign institutional investors (FIIs) are the frontrunners as prospective qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) portion in the PGCIL offer.  When asked JS Gulati, Power Grid general manager (F&A) said, "For the QIB we are confident in the first day itself it will be entirely subscribed. The interest shown from FIIs and domestic institutional investors is quite positive." Currently, Life Insurance Corporation and ICICI Prudential Life Insurance are the major domestic institutional investors.