The Chairman and Managing Director of BHEL, Mr B.P. Rao, and the Director (Power) of the company, Mr Atul Sarayya, are scheduled to hold a review meeting in Chennai today to take stock of some of the BHEL-supplied thermal power projects in Tamil Nadu.

High on the agenda is the 2x600 MW North Chennai project and the 2x500 MW Vallur project. The commissioning of these projects has been hugely delayed. For instance, the first unit of North Chennai should have been commissioned in August 2011.

Mr Rao will arrive in Chennai late Tuesday evening and immediately hold a review meeting. Mr Sarayya is scheduled to visit the North Chennai plant Tuesday afternoon. It is learnt that the BHEL wants to ensure that the first units of the two projects are commissioned by September this year.

Mr Rao is scheduled to visit Neyveli Lignite Corporation, which is putting up a 1,000 MW project at Tuticorin. This project too has been delayed very much and has been a point of some friction between BHEL and NLC.

Kudankulam

Meanwhile, it is learnt that the Kudankulam nuclear power project has got closer to being commissioned. It is now expected that the first of the two 1,000 MW plants will go on stream on August 25.

Sources in the know told Business Line today that the atmosphere of protests and the anti-nuclear sentiment, which have gained currency after the Fukushima disaster in March last year, have caused the project managers at Kudankulam to be ultra careful.

Every safety feature is doubly, triply checked, because nobody wants to take a chance, sources said. Hence the delay.

>mramesh@thehindu.co.in

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