The department of heavy industry in New Delhi is reportedly on the verge of issuing a Cabinet note to place a bulk order for power equipment with Bhel. The first lot is likely to be of 10 units of 800-mw supercritical generators and boilers. This is a discouraging development, to say the least. The undue haste with which the move has been made, despite the resistance of the power ministry, and without as much as a global call for tenders, only conjures scenarios in which various self-interest groups wield enough influence to scuttle all efforts at meeting India?s power generation targets that are not financially favourable to them. While Bhel may be state-owned, and therefore a natural supplier, its record has been tardy. By the Planning Commission?s own admission, more than half the 7,458-mw shortfall in achieving the Tenth Plan?s thermal power generation target was solely on account of Bhel?s delay in securing supercritical technology from abroad. Erratic supplies of equipment and materials from Bhel, not to mention inadequate manpower for commissioning teams, have been documented many times over as reasons for power projects failing to meet their deadlines in India. The Tenth Plan was supposed to have seen six supercritical units, of 660-mw each, start supplying electricity. There has been progress only on one of these, and this too has been pushed into the Eleventh Plan.
The targets, of course, are even more ambitious now. The Eleventh Plan expects 12 supercritical units of 8,060-mw total capacity. To achieve this, the industry ministry, in all its wisdom, wants to rely on Bhel for the largest chunk of supplies. So hellbent is it that the competition has been edged out through administrative fiat. Apart from the jurisdictional impropriety of infringing the turf of the power ministry, the recourse to such methods in an era of market openness is shocking. The power ministry prefers international competitive bids for such supplies, and if India?s power crunch is to be resolved, that is the way ahead. Tragically, though, we lack institutional mechanisms to prevent such episodes from recurring. In the past, the government has played the bully to protect the interests of Bhel so often that the power ministry was exasperated enough to try setting up its own equipment manufacturing unit. The government must not repeat mistakes.