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Our Bureau

New Delhi , Jan. 5

The Power Ministry is working on its proposal for the establishment of a second state-owned power equipment maker, according to the Power Minister, Mr Sushilkumar Shinde.

The new manufacturing company, which could be on the lines of state-owned Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL), may be set up as a unit of generation major NTPC Ltd, he said at a conference here.

Currently, BHEL is the only state-run company engaged in power equipment manufacturing, besides private companies such as Alstom, Siemens and GE. BHEL, however, comes under the Ministry of Heavy Industries.

The Power Ministry had, earlier, proposed the plan for an equipment company in October last year. A top BHEL official however, dubbed the idea as "paradoxical". "When BHEL itself has been operating below its capacity over the last three decades due to lack of demand, where is a need for another such company," a senior BHEL official said.

Besides, BHEL's equipment manufacturing capacity of 6,000 MW at present, which has generally remained underutilised, is being ramped up to 10,000 MW annually in light of the power generation capacity addition programme, the official said.

The Power Ministry has, however, been maintaining that BHEL, which has over Rs 40,000 crore of orders in hand, is "overburdened" and there is a need to establish another state-owned supplier.

More Stories on : Electrical Goods | Policy | Power | Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd

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