Hinting at a move against imports of entire plants, he said power projects with imported equipment are not proving viable. “We found that 20 per cent of the 78,000 mw capacity to be added during the 11th Plan period will have the main plant package imported from China. But the machinery from China already used in West Bengal’s Sagardighi and Durgapur has proved inefficient in operating with Indian coal, which has a high ash content,” he said.

The government-owned Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd, which had a monopoly when imports were not allowed, has been unable to meet the demand for power plant equipment.

Last year, Union power minister Sushil Kumar Shinde had said Bhel had been asked to compete for new projects via open global tenders. This had opened the floodgates to Chinese manufacturers.

“BHEL has proved (itself) with 500 mw plant packages and we are insisting that the BHEL standard should be implemented in all Indian power projects,” Ramesh said.

He made clear that the government is not eager to put BHEL under the adverse competition.

While BHEL is increasing its equipment-making capacity from the current 10,000 mw to 15,000 mw by 2011, Larsen & Toubro is setting up a facility of 4000 mw capacity per annum at Hazira.

Alstom and Alsando are already negotiating with the government for boiler making units and the proposed joint venture of power utility NTPC Ltd and BHEL of 4000 mw capacity will be commissioned by 2012.

Ramesh said orders have already been placed for 71,000 mw, but given India’s long-term power demand projection, orders for 25,000-30,000 mw have to be placed every year. The new manufacturing units will be able to make timely delivery of these orders, he said.