BHEL to commission Tirumayam plant

growing: B. Prasada Rao, Chairman and Managing Director, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited, addressing a press conference in Tiruchi on Wednesday.

TIRUCHI: Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) will commission its Thirumayam plant in Pudukkottai district by the end of 2011, its Chairman and Managing Director B. Prasada Rao said on Wednesday.

Construction of compound wall on the 40 acre site was started during September. The BHEL has made known the need for additional land for the plant, Mr. Rao said addressing a press conference.

The BHEL has been posting a year-on-year growth of 20 per cent over the past five years owing to capacity addition initiatives. In the second quarter the growth in revenue was 21 per cent. “We expect to reach the 62,000 MW mark with certainty by the end of the current five-year plan. With more efforts, 5,000 MW more could be added,” he said.

As for the Tiruchi plant, the BHEL was on its way to achieving the target of 6.5 lakh tonnes, he said. In the subsequent plan periods, the main demand of clients will be for supercritical boilers. Besides improving efficiency, supercritical sets lessen emission, he said, referring to the Tiruchi unit’s despatch of first consignment of supercritical boiler components for its 2 x 800 MW power project at Krishnapatnam in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh. Orders for five 660 MW supercritical boilers have so far been placed on BHEL.

Mr. Rao saw an opportunity for BHEL to capitalise on its technologies when asked about India’s assurance at the Copenhagen Summit to carry out 20-25 per cent carbon emission intensity cuts on the 2005 levels by 2020. By indigenising a range of both main and auxiliary products through absorbing technologies of 70 international companies over the past 40 to 45 years, BHEL enjoys a natural advantage, he said, expecting to attain revenue of Rs. 50,000 crore by 2012. The pending orders were worth Rs. 1.3 lakh crore. Mr. Rao expected the demand for captive power plants to grow by 10 per cent.

Through capacity addition and increase in manpower the BHEL was poised to augment its manufacturing capacity to 20,000 MW by 2012. Over the last two years, manpower was added to the extent of 8,500 in all categories like officers and workmen. Over the next three years, an addition of 4,000 will be made each year such that the overall number will reach 50,000 to 53,000 by 2012, said Mr. Rao.

The BHEL has begun to explore new markets in Africa. The company exports its products to South East Asian countries, Central Asian countries, Oman, Iran, Iraq, Libya and Sudan, Mr. Rao said.

Responding to a query Mr. Rao said that the BHEL was interested in manufacturing nuclear power plant equipment. Through its MoU with BEL (Bharat Electronics), the BHEL has taken steps to enhance its solar power generation to eight megawatts. Depending on the policy initiatives, the BHEL will scale up solar power generation with appropriate technology integration at the right time.

Mr. Rao was accompanied by the Executive Director of BHEL, Tiruchi, A.V. Krishnan and other senior officials.

SOURCE : THE HINDU