BHEL sees Rs 10000cr revenue from overseas orders by 2017

State-run power equipment maker BHEL expects a revenue of Rs 10,000 crore from foreign contracts by 2017 even as domestic orders from private companies have taken a hit due to financing constraints. "We are expecting a revenue of Rs 1 lakh crore for the company by 2017 of which 10 per cent would come from exports... i.e Rs 10,000 crore," BHEL Chairman and Managing Director BP Rao told reporters on the sidelines of India Energy Forum here.

"Overseas market has always been a focus of BHEL, irrespective of what is happening in India," Rao said, adding that some overseas markets like Syria and Yemen have political disturbances today. He said that Africa is a focussed market for BHEL and the PSU is looking at a number of projects there. The company is already executing some projects in the African continent and also looking at South-east Asia and Gulf countries.

On the issue of diminishing orderbook, Rao said, "I am not seeing any tenders from private sector. Whatever orders are coming are from central or state public sector companies. This year, there is hardly any bulk deal coming." Rao said that during 2008-2010, tenders for more than 30,000-40,000 MW were floated every year. However, last year saw only orders for just 4,000 MW.

"Private investors are not interested at this moment. BHEL has order book of nearly 55,000 MW. But commissioning is a problem. Projects are getting stalled, particularly the private sector projects. This is because financing is a problem," he said.

On asked about delay in equipment supply by BHEL, he said that his company is only partly responsible for delay in supply of equipment and other factors should also be taken into consideration. "BHEL is only doing a part of the order, we are doing less than 50 per cent of the order, we are not doing the entire project, there are number of other issues that we need to sort out," Rao noted.

"Land acquisition alone takes almost a year, there are many projects where we have supplied but they are not able to complete their own Balance Of Plant, raw water plants, coal handling plants are not ready and in some places evacuation is not ready," he said. Making a case for National Investment Board, Rao said, "I dont know when it is going to come into being... it would be a single agency to clear all the clearances required and is definitely better than going to multiple agencies, so I expect a lot of improvement would be there."