Chennai, Jan 30 (IANS) Power equipment major Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) will commission its piping plant in Thirumayam in Tamil Nadu in April this year, a senior company official said here Monday.

A.V. Krishnan, executive director of BHEL’s boiler division, also said modernisation of the state-owned firm’s seamless steel tubes plant at Thiruchirappalli (Trichy) at an outlay of Rs.160 crore would be over next year.
“We will commission the Thirumayam plant set up at an outlay of Rs.300 crore, in April. The plant capacity is 25,000 tonnes per annum (tpa). We are planning to make 17,000 tonnes of piping next fiscal,” Krishnan told reporters.
Asked about the additional land needed for the plant, he said: “We have 40 acres for the plant. We are looking for additional 60 acres for employee township and shipping (storage) area.”
BHEL has hired 600 employees for its new plant while 200 more would be needed.
Krishnan said the modernisation of the seamless steel tubes plant at Trichy would get over in 2013 and the focus will be on rolling out alloy steel while carbon steel would be bought from outside.
“The plant capacity is 90,000 tpa. Our steel tube need is around 300,000 tpa. So we will have to buy from outside. While the focus will be on making alloy steel in-house, we will outsource the carbon steel,” Krishnan said.
About the issues in the circulating fluidised bed combustion (CFBC) boilers supplied by BHEL to the integrated mining-cum-power generating company Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC), Krishnan said: “One of the two 250 MW CFBC boilers was lit up Sunday. The second unit will be lit up soon.”
He said the two 125 MW CFBC boilers supplied to NLC’s Rajasthan unit were functioning well.
BHEL had supplied four CFBC boilers to NLC. While the two 250 MW units are located in its home town and near the pit head at Neyveli in Tamil Nadu, the other two units – 2×125 MW – are in Rajasthan.
The two units at Rajasthan were dedicated to the nation in June 2010, but the boilers started facing problems and power generation had to be halted.
He said BHEL has an order book of around Rs.147,000 crore of which the boiler division’s share is around Rs.37,000 crore.
Krishnan also said the company was likely to sign an agreement with Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Ltd (TANGENDCO) for its 210 MW plant in Tuticorin.

Chennai, Jan 30 (IANS) Power equipment major Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) will commission its piping plant in Thirumayam in Tamil Nadu in April this year, a senior company official said here Monday.

A.V. Krishnan, executive director of BHEL’s boiler division, also said modernisation of the state-owned firm’s seamless steel tubes plant at Thiruchirappalli (Trichy) at an outlay of Rs.160 crore would be over next year.
“We will commission the Thirumayam plant set up at an outlay of Rs.300 crore, in April. The plant capacity is 25,000 tonnes per annum (tpa). We are planning to make 17,000 tonnes of piping next fiscal,” Krishnan told reporters.
Asked about the additional land needed for the plant, he said: “We have 40 acres for the plant. We are looking for additional 60 acres for employee township and shipping (storage) area.”
BHEL has hired 600 employees for its new plant while 200 more would be needed.
Krishnan said the modernisation of the seamless steel tubes plant at Trichy would get over in 2013 and the focus will be on rolling out alloy steel while carbon steel would be bought from outside.
“The plant capacity is 90,000 tpa. Our steel tube need is around 300,000 tpa. So we will have to buy from outside. While the focus will be on making alloy steel in-house, we will outsource the carbon steel,” Krishnan said.
About the issues in the circulating fluidised bed combustion (CFBC) boilers supplied by BHEL to the integrated mining-cum-power generating company Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC), Krishnan said: “One of the two 250 MW CFBC boilers was lit up Sunday. The second unit will be lit up soon.”
He said the two 125 MW CFBC boilers supplied to NLC’s Rajasthan unit were functioning well.
BHEL had supplied four CFBC boilers to NLC. While the two 250 MW units are located in its home town and near the pit head at Neyveli in Tamil Nadu, the other two units – 2×125 MW – are in Rajasthan.
The two units at Rajasthan were dedicated to the nation in June 2010, but the boilers started facing problems and power generation had to be halted.
He said BHEL has an order book of around Rs.147,000 crore of which the boiler division’s share is around Rs.37,000 crore.
Krishnan also said the company was likely to sign an agreement with Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Ltd (TANGENDCO) for its 210 MW plant in Tuticorin.