"We had sent four teams to China,Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Europe and the US. There has been very good response to our road shows and many foreign companies have evinced interest in these power projects," Shinde said.
He said the delegation to the US, which he himself led, held meetings with various companies, lending agencies and investors to apprise them of the 4,000 MW projects, each of which would cost about Rs 16,000 crore (Rs 160 billion).
"The US Exim Bank has approved an investment of up to $1 billion by Khanjee Holdings in one of these projects," he said, adding many foreign companies had already submitted 'Expressions of Interest' for these projects.
The government is planning seven such projects, one each in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and Chattisgarh. Power Finance Corp, the nodal agency for these projects, has invited EoIs for the first four of these projects.
Power Secretary R V Shahi said the government had assured a three-tier payment security mechanism, consisting of a Letter of Credit, an escrow account and the option of selling power directly to high-tension consumers in case of default.
He said state governments and distribution companies had already supported the projects and the shell companies set up by PFC were working on behalf of the state governments to get all the clearances and conduct tariff-based bidding.