'BHEL not responsible for power supply shortfall'

Monday, 21 January 2008, 17:53 IST
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New Delhi: Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) cannot be blamed for India's failure to achieve its power generation targets in the 10th Five Year Plan (2002-07) by more than 50 percent, says the top executive of the state-owned power equipment maker. "The shortfall in the 10th plan capacity addition programme has been on various accounts, most of which are not attributable to BHEL," the company's chairman and managing director Ashok K. Puri told IANS in an interview. Power project developers, both private and public sector, have attributed the failure to achieve their envisaged power generation capacities in the 10th plan to BHEL. This was strongly denied by Puri. "Against a target of 41,110 MW of capacity addition in the country during the 10th Plan, execution orders for less than 50 percent were placed on BHEL for commissioning in the 10th plan period," Puri said. "And in a majority of cases, BHEL's contractual obligations were limited to supplying and erecting power generating equipment and did not include project work like civil construction," he said. "There have been numerous cases of delay on the part of project developers in providing critical inputs like for taking up the projects," Puri said. "But the company still completed power generation projects of 14,912 MW during the 10th plan - an achievement of 80 percent against the target." "In addition, BHEL commissioned the 1,020-MW Tala Hydro project in Bhutan, which was not counted in its achievement for the 10th plan." "In comparison, other contractors achieved commissioning success of only 53 percent in the 10th plan," he pointed out. "Non-availability of gas linkages and delay in environmental and investment clearances were key factors for the huge shortfall in the targeted power generation capacity addition in the 10th plan," Puri said. "In addition, delays on the part of project developers to award implementation contracts caused slippage in the scheduled commissioning of a significant quantum of envisaged power generation capacity addition," he said. "11,000 MW of power generation capacity addition slipped from the power ministry's 10th plan programme because of these factors, which were beyond BHEL's control," Puri maintained. "Slippages in the 10th plan were also largely attributable to bunching of orders in the later part of the plan." "In order to avoid slippages in capacity addition, a balanced approach needs to be adopted where the addition of fresh capacity has to be spread proportionately over the five-year period of the plan." "This would facilitate planned execution and optimum utilisation of manufacturing facilities and avoid delays," he said.
Source: IANS