BHEL during Q1 FY11: A grand debacle

BHEL's performance over the first quarter of the ongoing 2010-11 fiscal has come in for a lot of flak from the power ministry, which has expressed disappointment over the fact that the equipment major has been unable to commission a slew of its projects expected to come up last quarter.

• Included in the projects delayed by BHEL are the first two units of the Pragati CCPP, which were supposed to effect power supplies to the upcoming Commonwealth Games. Only one 250 MW gas turbine (GT) is now likely to be made available for the Games, that too much after its original commissioning schedule. While BHEL has asserted that it would make all-out efforts to commission both the units in question by the end of this month, such assurances seem hollow, given the abysmal track record of the company.
• Likewise, despite NTPC's best efforts to compress the work schedules at various fronts, the first 500 MW unit of Indira Gandhi super thermal power project (STPP) in Jhajjar, also being executed by BHEL, was not commissioned during the first quarter. The other projects that have slipped from April-June 2010 are:
•  -- The 500 MW Unit-I of Mejia expansion thermal power project (TPP) of Damodar Valley Corporation
•  -- The 600 MW Unit-II of Rajiv Gandhi thermal power station (TPS) in Hissar
•  -- JSW Energy's units I and II of Ratnagiri TPP
•  -- The 600 MW Unit-I of Sterlite TPP
•  -- Adani Power's Mundra TPP phase-I, units III and IV, of 600 MW each