Reliance pipeline order for BHPV likely

Four-member Reliance team visits BHPV facility

The Reliance group is planning to lay natural gas pipelines from the Krishna-Godavari Basin to other parts of the country. The group is likely to hand over the responsibility of manufacturing the pipelines and other fabricating equipment to the Vizag-based public sector undertaking Bharat Heavy Plates and Vessels Limited (BHPV).

A four-member team from the Reliance group visited the BHPV workshop recently and had negotiations with the higher officials.

Apart from huge pipes, Reliance group requires different processing equipment and other machinery for its offshore and onshore oil and natural gas exploration works.

Since BHPV has the fabricating facilities for making different pipes, Reliance is planning to offer the order to BHPV.

If BHPV accepts the offer, Reliance will supply all the required material to BHPV, which will convert them into different equipment. Later, Reliance will pay the conversion charges to BHPV.

"At present, our workshops are less loaded due to lack of sufficient orders. BHPV has no money to procure materials on its own because of financial crunch. Since Reliance is willing to supply the material, BHPV is expected to accept the offer," said DN Raju, the chief general manager of BHPV.

If BHPV agrees the terms and conditions of Reliance, it would get continuous work orders for at least 4-5 years. With a 1,700 manpower strength, BHPV has the capacity to handle upto Rs 300 crore turnover a year.

"We have showed our workshops to the Reliance team. We explained them about our workshops' capacity and our engineers' capabilities. The team expressed satisfaction," DN Raju said.