The three business divisions of the Bangalore-based Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), namely, the electronic division, ceramic business unit (CBU) and industrial systems group (ISG) together have achieved a turnover of Rs 3,737 crore, up 21 per cent from previous year. The profit before tax of the Bangalore division in 2011-12 at Rs 1,028 crore, was 13 per cent higher.
Briefing reporters, BHEL Executive Director (Electronics Division) G Ganapathiraman, said, the PSU has an outstanding order book of Rs 7,815 crore at the end of this financial year, which could sustain the company for the next two years.
The Electronic Division (EDN) clocked a turnover of Rs 2,301 crore and its PBT stood at Rs 827 crore; Industrial Systems Group’s turnover crossed the Rs 1,000 crore mark to touch Rs 1,002 crore, with its PBT at Rs 140 crore; while the Ceramic Business Unit (CBU) witnessed a turnover of Rs 434 crore, recording a PBT of Rs 61 crore, he said.
The company filed four patents and 19 copyrights in the areas of Control Equipment and Solar Photovoltaics, Ganapathiraman said. The EDN, to support the nation’s power development programme has embarked on capacity augmentation programme to deliver over 7,000 control panels and 160,000 electronic modules per year, he said.
Even as the PSU major is seeing positive signs, the commissioning of a 600 Mw thermal power unit in North Chennai for the power hungry Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) on schedule is in doubt the equipment vendor for the power project (BHEL) is awaiting the consent of the Ennore Port Ltd to bring in and unload a critical component for power generation at its yard near Chennai.
A 380-tonne stator motor for the unit has already been moved from BHEL’s Haridwar plant in Uttarakhand, to Mundra Port in Gujarat. It now needs to be shipped from the Mundra Port to Ennore Port, near Chennai. But, the latter has conveyed its apprehensions that the unloading of the heavy equipment would damage the port infrastructure, said A K Ghosh, CEO, BHEL Power Sector – Southern Region (PSSR).
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“The port authorities have raised its apprehensions and has not given its consent to ship the product. So it is waiting at the Mundra Port. We are making some presentations and giving some clarifications to the authorities to clear their apprehensions,” said Ghosh.
It is to be noted that last year a stator motor transported from Hardwar unit of the BHEL by road for the project fell into a river when a bridge gave way. This has delayed the project by seven months, announced Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa in the State Assembly in February, this year.
The stator motor is hence being taken via sea to avoid such accidents. While BHEL has announced its plans to launch the North Chennai project in the next six to eight months, delays in bringing in the equipment to the site would further delay commissioning of the project. The consignment could only be routed through the Ennore Port, said a company official.
“We are keeping everything else ready so that we could commission the project within two to three months from the date of getting the consent of Ennore Port to unload the equipment. The boiler will be lit up within a day or two,” said Ghosh.
Of the two units of the 600 Mw thermal plants coming up in North Chennai, the Unit 2 would be commissioned first. Another stator motor for the Unit 1, which would be commissioned later, would be brought from Haridwar in May, this year.
Ennore Port is a Miniratna Category-I public sector undertaking of the Government of India under the Ministry of Shipping and is registered as a company.