India's largest power producer, NTPC Ltd., (NTPC), will be carrying this month an international $1 billion bond sale to help support the company's capacity expansion plans in light of the electricity crisis that hit country last week.

In a press conference in New Delhi on Tuesday, NTPC Chairman Arup Roy Choudhury said the medium-term notes will help the company finance its capital investments. No other details, however, were provided.

Mr Choudhury said majority or 70 per cent of NTPC's planned investments will be funded through debt. The company, which has raised $800 million by selling medium-term notes since 2006, has plans to grow its generation capacity by 30 per cent to 51,052 megawatts by March 2017. However, the lack of guaranteed coal supplies prevents it to start building projects, he said. There are projects in the pipeline that can give almost 11,000 megawatts of capacity.

India last week suffered its worst electricity crisis so far when a blackout hit the country's northern and eastern portions, leaving more than 640 million people grappling in the dark. The massive power crisis likewise affected operations of trains and caused huge traffic jams. India had actually been experiencing power disruptions due to a dearth in the supply of coal and natural gas.

The Indian power producer likewise said it will develop coal mines in the country to support plans of churning 37 million metric tonnes of fuel per year by the year ending March 31, 2017.