Private sector trusts BHEL quality

In what could be seen as a testimony of the quality of its work, a staggering 94 per cent of the orders received by state-run power equipment manufacturer BHEL last year came from the private sector.

The private power generation companies, which till recently patronised Chinese equipment makers, have come back to BHEL only due to its quality and performance parameters offered by the public sector undertaking (PSU).

BHEL received equipment orders worth 11,700 MW in 2009. 

"Private power companies which earlier gave the contracts to the Chinese firms are coming back to us... In fact, some of them have scrapped their contracts with the Chinese vendors and are approaching us for supply of equipments," BHEL Chairman and Managing Director B P Rao said here today.

He, however, refused to name the private power players which have placed orders with BHEL after scrapping contracts with the Chinese vendors saying as per corporate agreement "we cannot disclose the names."

Chinese companies have often drawn flak for cheap-quality equipment due to which various projects have suffered. Asked what triggered this change, Rao said, "Performance of our equipments made the change," helping BHEL receive orders worth 11,000 MW from April to December, 2009.

Some of the power projects included in 11,000 MW are two orders of Rs 640 crore each from Adhunik Power and Natural Resources for supplying equipment for the company's thermal power project in Jharkhand during the previous calender year.