MUMBAI: An Adani Group company has sought license to expand its power distribution business in more areas of Mumbai, including the country’s largest container port JNPT.
In an advertisement published in several newspapers in the city on Saturday, Adani Electricity Navi Mumbai (AENM) said it has approached the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) for a distribution license in some pockets of the Mumbai metropolitan region along with its registered parent Adani Transmission.
The company is seeking a power distribution license in areas served exclusively by state-run Mahadiscom in the Mumbai suburbs of Mulund and Bhandup, as well as Thane, Navi Mumbai, Panvel, Kharghar, Taloja and Uran districts.
The group, whose assets include the Adani Ports business, is also in the running to distribute power to the country’s largest container port JNPT, located near Navi Mumbai.
The parallel distribution license application is the first such move by any player under the Electricity Act, 2003. The application was accepted by MERC on Friday after which a public notice was issued.
It said the Adani group will serve over 5 lakh consumers by the end of five years of the license being granted.
The public notice said Adani Transmission owns over 99 per cent stake in AENM, while nominees of the listed company, including Pranav Adani, hold a minor stake.
Energy veterans Anil Kumar Sardana, Rohit Soni and Mehul Rupera are the directors of AENM.
Adani Electricity has been distributing electricity in Mumbai for over four years and competes with Tata Power in the business. The company, which entered the fray after the over Rs 18,000-crore acquisition of the embattled Anil Ambani group’s Reliance Energy, has failed to increase its market share in the areas it serves.