The Hindu Business Line : Tiruchi to see Rs 1,200-cr `energy' investment

THE public sector power equipment monolith BHEL, other private sector equipment producers such as Cethar Vessels and G B Engineering, windmill tower manufacturers such as Anand Engineering and the 150-odd fabrication units will together invest Rs 1,200 crore in expansion of their capacities.

This statistic underlines Tiruchi's status as the `energy equipment manufacturing capital' of India, says Mr B.V. Ramanan, Chairman, Energex 2005. `Energex 2005 - Exhibition & Conference on Energy Equipment' organised here by the Confederation of Indian Industry today. The event, which is to happen every three years, is being held to showcase Tiruchi's strengths in steel fabrication and power equipment manufacture.

The total turnover of all energy equipment manufacturers based in Tiruchi is expected to cross the Rs 6,000-cr mark, it was noted at the inaugural session of the Energex today.

Delivering the keynote address at the inauguration of the event, Dr Hari N. Sharan, Co-Chairman, Decentralised Energy Systems India, Pvt Ltd, said that Tiruchi had an opportunity to become the global hub for power equipment industry. Dr Sharan, a former Director of BHEL, observed that India would have to depend upon coal for power for many years to come and exhorted the Tiruchi units to focus on clean coal technologies. He wanted the units to take to more efficient technologies, so that the efficiency of coal-based plants could be raised from 33 per cent now to 44 per cent — that is, useless coal for the same amount of electricity produced.

Dr Sharan emphasised the need for the decentralised power supply systems across the country since the present centralised power supply system is not likely to meet the energy demands of all in the next ten years or so. He pointed out the potential to generate power from bio-mass using agricultural waste.

Delivering the inaugural address, Mr V. Sethuraman, Director - Power, Neyveli Lignite Coporation Ltd., said that India was all set to become a country with over 2 lakh MW of installed power generation capacity by 2012.

Pointing to the enormity of the ongoing projects in the power sector — which has business implications for the Tiruchi units — Mr Sethuraman observed that as of August 2005, there were 419 projects involving an outlay of Rs 5.32 lakh crore, at various stages of planning, with a total generation capacity of 183,000 MW.

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