BHEL creating capacities to meet
country's capacity addition targets

Major Expansion underway at the
company's Boiler Plant at Trichy

New Delhi, January 29: Aimed at equipping itself to meet the country's ambitious power generating capacity addition target in the 11th and 12th Five Year Plans, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) has adopted a multi-pronged capacity and capability building strategy. In addition to holistic modernization of facilities, the company is augmenting its manufacturing capacity to 15,000 MW per annum by 2009. As part of this, BHEL is upgrading its Boiler manufacturing facility at its Trichy plant.

The company has already invested Rs.190 Crore on the Boiler Shops and is now investing another Rs.736 Crore to upgrade the production capacity of Boilers. With the completion of this capacity augmentation programme by 2009, BHEL's production capacity for manufacturing Thermal / Nuclear Boilers will go up to 4,81,000 MT from a capacity of 1,08,000 MT, prior to commencement of the expansion programme.

The scheme envisages installation of the state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities including machinery required for manufacturing supercritical boilers and addition of shop floor area, material handling, storage and shipping facilities. The new scheme will help the company to enhance its capability to build higher rating Boilers and Once-through Super Critical (OTSC) Technology of 800 MW and 1,000 MW; improve its presence in overseas markets; enhance Quality Process Modernisation and Productivity, besides reduction in Cycle Time, Rejection and Rework rate.

In addition, existing facilities for manufacture of Steam Generators for 700 MWe Nuclear Power Stations and special facilities for manufacturing unique equipment for BARC and Defence, will also be modernised at an investment of Rs.52 Crore. Besides, an Advanced Centre for Manufacturing Excellence will be set up at BHEL's Welding Research Institute, Trichy at an investment of around Rs.19 Crore.

The company is also upgrading the Ultra-modern Blade Shop set up at its Haridwar plant in 2003. Advanced design blades are used in thermal sets for better efficiency and lower heat rate and were being imported prior to the setting up of this Blade Shop. The company has already invested Rs.180 Crore on the Blade Shop and is now investing another Rs.220 Crore to upgrade the production capacity of advanced design blades to 2.25 lakh blades for 15,000 MW sets per annum by 2009. With this, BHEL will become fully capable of manufacturing advanced design blades for thermal sets up to 1,000 MW capacity.

In addition, BHEL is setting up a new Fabrication Plant and a Central Stamping Unit at Jagdishpur in Uttar Pradesh. The new centralised facilities are being set up by BHEL at a cumulative initial investment of Rs.306 Crore aimed at meeting vital aspects of power plant equipment manufacture and will help in speedy execution of power projects.

The Fabrication Plant is being set up to meet the burgeoning requirement of fabricated components and assemblies required by BHEL's major units. The plant will produce around 25,000 MT per annum including about 16,000 MT of structures for Boilers for direct dispatch to power plant sites in the eastern and northern regions. The Central Stamping Unit is being set up to meet the increased requirement of stampings, a critical part of electrical machines, due to the growth in business and market demand for Generators and Electrical Motors.