Concerned over falling short of power capacity addition target in successive years, the power ministry has squarely blamed equipment supplier Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) for delayed commissioning of projects.
"Our BHEL is not coping with the orders, a lot of complaints for the delay in supply of equipment are there. It (BHEL) is one of the reasons for delay and shortfall in capacity addition targets," Power Minister Sushil kumar Shinde told PTI in an interview.
BHEL, which is the country's largest public sector power equipment player, currently manufactures units that can generate 10,000 Mw electricity annually, whereas the targeted capacity addition by the power ministry is 78,577 Mw for the 11th Five-Year Plan (2007-2012).
"We want to add more capacity but its (BHEL) production capacity is not sufficient, I have been putting pressure on BHEL for two years to speed up work," Shinde said.
Not just the main plant equipment like boilers and turbines, but the projects are also suffering due to lack of balance of plant equipment for coal handling plants.
"Balance of plant is not ready, which is another reason for shortfall in power generation," he said.
The Power Ministry had initially envisaged to add 78,577 Mw of electricity generation capacity in the country but this target has been revised the target downward to 13,000 Mw annually.
Shinde will also hold a meeting of all state power ministers on June 23 to ensure that the revised capacity addition target is achieved and to find out the reasons for shortfall in it.
The minister is planning to form a committee of some of the retired power secretaries to guide and monitor the progress. He is also in talks with former power secretaries including R V Shahi and Anil Razdan in this regard.
