Sharp differences have emerged within the government over the performance of power equipment manufacturer BHEL and the need for setting up another state-owned supplier to meet the electricity shortfall.
While power ministry has partially blamed Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd for the failure to meet Tenth Plan targets, the ministry of heavy industries strongly defended the PSU and instead faulted power utilities for placing orders late.
In response to power ministry's agenda note for the May 15 meeting of Energy Coordination Committee, headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the MHI said of the 18,696 MW orders placed on BHEL, about 40 per cent (7,032 MW) were placed as late as 2003-04 and 2004-05, making it difficult to achieve the Tenth Plan targets.
Power ministry had set a target of adding a generation capacity of 41,100 MW during 2002-07, but actual addition has been barely 23,000 MW, a shortage of nearly 50