Indian Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde called in Tokyo on Thursday for Japanese investment in a project to set up seven 4,000-megawatt power plants in India to meet increasing demand, a Japanese official said.
Shinde sought Japan's support for the project during a meeting with Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Toshihiro Nikai.
Nikai said Japan can offer cooperation through yen loans and urged India to give increased priority to the power project in making requests for the financial aid, the official said.
The plan to build new thermal power plants is part of measures to achieve India's goal of supplying electricity all over the country by 2012, with a capacity to generate 125,000 mw of power by that year, the official said.
Shinde is visiting Japan for talks on the power plant project with Japanese trading houses, including Marubeni Corp. and Sumitomo Corp., as well as chambers of commerce, the official said.