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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 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 CMD B.P. Rao told PTI .

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, Mr. 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 calendar year.

BHEL also bagged a Rs. 2,600-crore contract from Jindal India Thermal Power Ltd. It also received a Rs. 373-crore order from Alstom Projects for supplying boiler components for the company's plant at Andhra Pradesh.

The current order-book of the company stands at Rs. 1,32,000 crore. Various power companies, including Reliance Power, Adani Power and also state-run NTPC, have given contracts to Chinese firms for supplying equipment. BHEL currently manufactures equipment that can generate 10,000 MW of electricity.

Source - Hindu