L&T inaugurates 4K crore power equipment facility

SURAT: India's first private sector facilities for the manufacture of supercritical boilers and turbine generators was inaugurated at L&T MHI Plant at Hazira here on Tuesday. Twoseparate functions were held for the supercritical boilers and turbinegenerators facilities. The first one was attended by Union minister of powerSushil Kumar Shinde, Union minister of state for power Bharatsinh Solanki andUnion minister of heavy industries Vilasrao Deshmukh. The second function wasattended by Chief Minister Narendra Modi. A joint venture betweenL&T and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), the facilities are among thelargest of their kind in the world with Rs 4,000 crore investment. They have anannual capacity to manufacturing 5,000 MW of equipment which is likely to beexpanded to 6,000 MW by 2012. Addressing the gathering at Hazira,Union minister of power Sushil Kumar Shinde said, "In the 10{+t}{+h} Five YearPlan, there were only 6 to 7 per cent of private players in the power sector.Now we have about 26 per cent which is set to go up to 50 per cent in 12{+t}{+h}Five Year Plan." Shinde said the JV between L&T and MHI has madea beginning and that India is expected to become the number one exporter ofstate-of-the-art boilers and turbines to the world. Union Ministerof Heavy Industries Vilasrao Deshmukh said "I consider the public sector companyBHEL and L&T as sister concerns and together we both can deliver exponentlyto the power needs of the country. There is a need to bridge demand supply gapin the power sector by scaling up the power generation to more than 1 lakh MW inthe 12{+t}{+h} five year plan." Chief Minister Narendra Modi said "Iam quite busy with the Vibrant Gujarat celebrations. But I owe a great deal toL&T because of the fact that this was the only company that stood by Surtisduring the devastating floods of 2006 and it cleaned up the whole of Surat. I amproud of the fact that the first private sector facilities for manufacture ofsupercritical boilers and turbine generators have been inaugurated at Hazira."