Having decided to increase the boilder capacity of the Trichy plant to 20,000 mw from the current 10,000 mw, public sector power major Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (Bhel) has equally decided to increase the capacity of power components to meet the future requirements.
As part of this move, the company has decided to set up a new manufacturing plant in Tamil Nadu. The new plant, to come up in 100 acres at Tirumayam near Pudukotta, will have an initial capacity of 25,000 tonne per annum and will have a provision to scale up the same in a bigger way.
The company is expected to make an initial investment of Rs 250 crore and work will commence in the near future, said a senior official of the company on Sunday. The plant will generate an annual revenue to the tune of Rs 500 crore, he added.
Union home minister P Chidambaram on Sunday, in presence of Bhel CMD K Ravikumar and senior officials of the company, laid the foundation stone for the new plant.
According to the official, the plant will manufacture customised products for its critical and super critical boilers which are in great demand and the company has got huge orders for the same. Some of the products include economised coil, re-heater coil, super heater coil, low temperature coil, loose tubes among host of products.
?All these products will meet the requirements of various sizes of boilers, being produced by Bhel at its Trichy plant,? the official said. The company has gained manufacturing expertise of super critical boilers size off 660 mw to 800 mw and even can upgrade itself to manufacture boilers to the capacity of 1,000 mw, he added.
To a question, the official said the proposal was made a few months and the company is working on detailed project report and expect to submit the same soon. Based on the report, the work will be commenced at the earliest. The plant will provide a direct employment to 750 people and indirectly to thousands. Bhel current manufactures these products at its Trichy plant and has a total capacity to the tune of 400,000 tonne, he added.
The official further said that the company has involved in scaling up its Trichy plant capacity to an equivalent of 15,000 mw as against 10,000 mw with an estimated investment of Rs 732 crore and expected to complete the same by next fiscal end. Post that, the capacity will be further increased to an equivalent of 20,000 mw for which it requires to have a dedicated manufacturing facility for the abovesaid components, the official pointed out.