Bhel awaits Ennore port nod to unload equipment

Commissioning of 600-Mw thermal project may get delayed

With Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (Bhel) awaiting consent from Ennore Port Ltd to bring in and unload a critical component for power generation in its yard near here, commissioning of a 600-Mw thermal power unit in north Chennai for the power-deficient Tamil Nadu Electricity Board has been hit by uncertainty .

A 380-tonne stator motor for the unit has already been moved from Bhel’s Haridwar plant in Uttarakhand to Mundra port in Gujarat. It is now to be shipped from Mundra to Ennore, near here, but the latter has conveyed its apprehension that the unloading of heavy equipment would damage the port infrastructure, said AK Ghosh, CEO, Bhel Power Sector – Southern Region (PSSR).

“The port authority has raised its apprehension and has not given consent to ship the product, so it is waiting at Mundra Port. We are making some presentations and giving some clarification to the authorities to clear their apprehensions,” said Ghosh.

Last year, a stator motor transported from Hardwar unit of Bhel by road for the project fell in a river. This delayed the project by seven months, chief minister J Jayalalithaa had said.

This time they have taken the sea route to avoid any such mishap. While Bhel has announced its plans to launch the north Chennai project in the next six to eight months, delay in bringing in the equipment to the site would result in further delay in commissioning of the project. The consignment could be only routed through Ennore port, said a company official.

“We are keeping everything else ready so that we could commission the project within two to three months from getting the consent from Ennore port to unload the equipment,” said Ghosh.

Of the 2 units of 600 Mw thermal plants coming up in north Chennai, Unit 2 would be commissioned first. Another stator motor for Unit 1, which would be commissioned later, would be brought from Haridwar in May, this year.

Ennore port is a miniratna category-I public sector undertaking of the Government of India under the shipping ministry and is registered as a company.