Big payoff, long wait

Summary: A large-scale expansion story promises meaningful growth, but the journey may be slow and uneven. Here, we explore the trade-off between long-term potential and near-term pressures. It highlights why patience becomes the key factor in such investments.

Summary: A large-scale expansion story promises meaningful growth, but the journey may be slow and uneven. Here, we explore the trade-off between long-term potential and near-term pressures. It highlights why patience becomes the key factor in such investments. India is building power infrastructure at a pace it has never attempted before. The National Electricity Plan puts the investment needed for power generation at Rs 33.6 lakh crore between 2022 and 2032. Transmission adds another Rs 9.15 lakh crore. In total, over Rs 42 lakh crore of visible investment is in the works. In that context, NLC India, with its own mammoth capex, is starting to look very different from the sleepy state-run business it has been for years. Rs 1 lakh crore capex engine Most people know NLC as a power company. It is more than that. It is an integrated mining-and-power business operating lignite and coal mines, thermal power stations and a growing renewable arm. Today, it has 50.1 million tonnes of annual mining capacity, 5,960 megawatts of thermal capacity and 1,781 megawatts of renewable capacity. By 2030, the plan is to get to 104.35 million tonnes of mining capacity and over 10,000 megawatt each of thermal and renewables by spending a massive Rs