Sharp differences have emerged within the government over the performance of power equipment manufacturer BHEL and the need for setting up another state-owned supplier to meet the electricity shortfall.
While power ministry has partially blamed Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd for the failure to meet Tenth Plan targets, the ministry of heavy industries strongly defended the PSU and instead faulted power utilities for placing orders late.
In response to power ministry's agenda note for the May 15 meeting of Energy Coordination Committee, headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the MHI said of the 18,696 MW orders placed on BHEL, about 40 per cent (7,032 MW) were placed as late as 2003-04 and 2004-05, making it difficult to achieve the Tenth Plan targets.
Power ministry had set a target of adding a generation capacity of 41,100 MW during 2002-07, but actual addition has been barely 23,000 MW, a shortage of nearly 50
The ministry feels that to achieve the ambitious target of 76,000 MW during the Eleventh Plan and also for subsequent years, another state-owned manufacturer similar to BHEL needs to be created.
Power Ministry has already asked NTPC Ltd to explore such a possibility, but the move has been opposed by MHI. Sources said the MHI also found fault with private equipment manufactures like Dongfang and Shanghai Electric of China, Korea's Doosan and Russia's Power Machines and Techno Prom for delaying supplies to various projects.
MHI pointed out that while BHEL completed 80 per cent of the orders (14,900 MW) placed during Tenth Plan, other firms commissioned only about half of the 12,700 MW work contracts.
