Bhuj, 11 January 2012

The Tata group Chairman Ratan Tata is on short introductory visit to Gujarat today with Tata group’s next Chairman Cyrus Mistry.

Shri Tata arrived at Kutch’s Gandhidham airport at 9.00 am on Wednesday morning. With Cyrus Mistry, Shri Tata drove to Mundra where Tata Power’s Mundra Ultra Mega Power Project(UMPP) is located.

The UMPP has started generating power with its first 800 MW unit has been made functional since last Sunday.

The project at Mundra in Kutch district of Gujarat, shall have five units of 800 MW each, generating 4,000 MW of power using supercritical technology.

The first unit was slated to be ready for commissioning by September 2011.

Power Finance Corporation, the nodal agency for these UMPPs, has so far awarded four such projects. The other three projects – Sasan (Madhya Pradesh), Krishnapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) and Tilaiya (Jharkhand) -have been bagged by Reliance Power.

The Tata Group firm, which currently has power generation capacity of 3,797 MW, has ambitious plans for 25,000 MW capacity by 2017. Of this, 4,000 MW will come from Mundra.

On November 23, Tata Sons had announced that Mr. Mistry, a former Managing Director at the Shapoorji Pallonji Group, would be Mr. Ratan Tata’s successor to the head of the over $80-billion conglomerate Tata Group.

The 43-year-old Mistry, son of Pallonji Mistry, Chairman of the Shapoorji Pallonji Group which holds 18 per cent stake in Tata Sons, will take over the reins when Mr. Tata retires in December, 2012.

Mr. Tata would hang his boots in December, 2012, when he turns 75 — the retirement age fixed by the group that has presence in businesses ranging from salt to software. Tata Sons had constituted a five-member committee in August last year to scout for a successor to Mr. Tata.

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