Taking the power ministry head on, the heavy industry ministry has begun brainstorming the idea of creating NTPC-II — a befitting reply to the former’s overtures on its turf. The power ministry had recently mooted a plan to set up BHEL-II, a second engineering giant on the lines of Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd.

A heavy industry ministry official said that BHEL has been asked to explore the possibility of venturing into power generation.

Asked if this meant creating NTPC-II, he said, “If forcing NTPC into manufacturing means creating BHEL-II, a new power outfit by BHEL can surely be called NTPC-II. The only difference here is NTPC has no core competence of manufacturing power equipments whereas BHEL is already a power producer, executing projects on a turnkey basis. All it requires for BHEL to create a power generation company is to start owning power projects.”

Repeated recent criticism (by power minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and secretary R.V. Shahi) that tardy execution of projects by BHEL has led to the power ministry missing the Tenth Plan capacity addition plan has prompted the heavy industry ministry to break its silence.

The official said the ministry was not averse to creating another equipment manufacturing company.

NHPC gets nod for IPO

New Delhi: The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) okayed the National Hydro-Electric Power Corporation (NHPC) to go in for an IPO not exceeding 24 per cent of its share capital in one or more tranches in the domestic or international market.

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