Panel wants more PSUs to manufacture power equipment

A Parliamentary Committee wants public sector units apart from Bhel to manufacture power equipment in the country.

"The government should encourage other PSUs to enter into manufacturing of equipment for power projects either in joint venture with international player or on other suitable mode of partnerships," the committee report said.

It pointed out, "Expect Bhel, there are no major PSUs in the manufacturing and supply of critical equipment for power projects. Though Bhel has been expanding its capacity, demand for equipment (is) not being met on time."

The committee said projects of state-run NTPC are getting delayed because equipment is not supplied by Bhel in time, forcing the generator to reset work schedule, which in turn causes unpleasantness in the relationship between the two PSUs.

Now Bhel has the capacity to manufacture equipment to generate 10,000mw per annum. However, the company has planned to raise its capacity for 15,000 MW by the end of the Eleventh Five-Year Plan (by 2012). But this is not sufficient to meet the government's power generation capacity addition of 78,577 MW during the same period.

Joint ventures for power equipment manufacture include Larsen & Toubro-Bhel, Bharat Forge-Alstom, NTPC-Bhel, and Reliance Power-Shanghai Electric. But they will be able to manufacture to full capacity three or four years later.