Ramesh pulls up BHEL for being lax

The friction between the power and the heavy industries ministries surfaced once again on Tuesday when Minister of State for Power and Commerce Jairam Ramesh pulled up Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) for not having partnered with Transformers and Electricals Kerala Ltd (TELK), the Kerala government-owned electrical equipment-maker.

BHEL, which is the country’s largest power equipment manufacturer, comes under the heavy industries ministry.

NTPC Ltd, the country’s largest power producer, had agreed to buy the 44.6 per cent stake of the Kerala government in TELK two years ago. The transaction which is likely to be completed later this month.

“My only regret is that NTPC is the partner for TELK. I feel that BHEL is the right partner for TELK,” said Ramesh.

Terming BHEL as “the great Indian elephant which moves slowly but surely”, Ramesh urged BHEL to take over NTPC’s share in TELK as a new disinvestment model whereby a public sector company can disinvest in favour of another.

Currently, TELK has a turnover of about Rs 200 crore and is expected to ramp it up to Rs 1,000 crore in five years.

Ramesh was speaking at an MoU-signing ceremony between BHEL and Kerala Electrical and Allied Engineering Company Ltd (KEL), another Kerala government entity, for forming a joint venture to manufacture electrical products for the power industry and the railways.

“It will most probably be a 50:50 joint venture. We are planning to have about Rs 60-crore turnover from the JV next year (2009-10),” said K Ravi Kumar, BHEL chairman and managing director. Kumar, however, added that the total investment that would flow into the joint venture was yet to be worked out.

“The JV will also manufacture generators of 1.6 Mw capacity to power wind turbines for GE and Siemens,” Kumar said. The company already manufactures wind turbines of 1 Mw capacity at its Bhopal unit.

Under the MoU, BHEL has also committed to place 26 orders with KEL for manufacturing alternators.