The decision to defer the issue till the next financial year was taken at the board meeting of the state-owned corporation last week, NTPC chairman and managing director Rajendra Singh said. "We have deferred the euro bond issue in the current financial year and might go for it in April or May," he said. For raising the foreign loan the corporation had invited offers and was talking to various international banks, NTPC sources said. Besides the corporation was also seeking credit of about Rs 2,000 crore from domestic financial institutions for its various projects in the next 2-3 years, sources said.

NTPC is talking to ICICI, Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) and State Bank of India. On the euro issue, Singh said that "we would definitely like to go for sucha float as it gives the corporation a wider acceptability in the international market. We might need such an acceptability for our future borrowing programmes."

Singh said the foreign loan would be through a syndication of banks, but declined to give further details. Replying to another question, NTPC chief said that of 950 mw of power capacity including 350 mw kayamkulam in Kerala, commissioned by prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee last month.

NTPC also commissioned the third unit of Feroz Gandhi Unchahar Thermal Power Project with a capacity of 210 mw last week ahead of schedule, he said. The corporation further plans to commission seventh unit of 500 mw of Vindhyachal project-stage II and second 115 mw unit of Kayamkulam gas project within this year.

NTPC now has a total capacity of 17,120 mw and plans to become 30,000 mw plus company after the end of Tenth Five Year Plan in year 2007, he said. Singh said that corporation would commission projects totalling about 1100 mw capacity in the nextfinancial year .

Earlier the corporation had written to global banks like CS First Boston, Bank of America and Citibank-ABN Amro for raising the 100 mn euro, the sources said.