Small and micro enterprises in the State supplying equipment to public sector power giant Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited are struggling to survive as most of the power projects have been put on hold due to coal crisis, according to additional industrial advisor, Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises S Sivagnanam said.
Speaking to Express on the sidelines of Cluster Level Intellectual Property Awareness Programme organised by Confederation of Indian Industry here on Wednesday, Sivagnanam said BHEL ancillaries in Ranipet and Tiruchy had been hit as business orders were not coming from BHEL.
A BHEL senior official confirmed that BHEL itself was not getting orders for the equipment from its customers including the state electricity corporations as most of the power projects across India has been put on hold due to the coal crisis. “Many of these ancillaries are not in demand as our customers have put on hold many power projects due to coal crisis,” he said. This has affected BHEL and it is believed that the public sector unit has been ordered to diversify its business for making locomotives and treatment plants.
Coal crisis has hit National Thermal Power Corporation badly. A National Thermal Power Corporation official said many units had been hit due to the coal crisis. “NTPC could have generated six billion units of power from April to September but are unable to do it due to the coal crisis,” he said.
Sivagnanam said many micro units had shut down and some were facing crisis. “We trained about 25 women entrepreneurs who were supplying equipment to BHEL but they were hit as the business was facing hurdles,” he said.
He said the orders for boilers and auxillaries were not given by BHEL as most of the power projects were put on hold.