BHEL blamed for long outages

A cornered UP power corporation is now blaming the central government for the UP-NCR entering the dark ages. The corporation claims that it is facing a shortage of 800MW as Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) has not completed repair and maintenance work at the Obra power station, entrusted to it almost eight years ago. UPPCL has asked the Union power ministry to intervene and ensure completion of pending work on a priority. Senior officials said the issue was conveyed to the Centre during the one-day conference of power ministers of all states and UTs on September 10. Scheduled outages are currently in place across the state due to non-availability of adequate power, said officials. At least four scheduled outages have been imposed in the last 48 hours in Noida alone. These cuts have stretched for over several hours irrespective of the scheduled timings and are in addition to the four-hour cuts imposed at night in industrial sectors. With similar outages reported from Ghaziabad, lives of residents have been pushed into complete disarray. Corporation officials said that UPPCL had given maintenance work on five units of 200MW capacity each at the Obra 'B' power plant to BHEL in 2006. Though the work was to be completed by 2009, the PSU is yet to finish the job. "A number of meetings were held to resolve this issue, but work progress has not been satisfactory. On completion, we can enhance our capacity to ensure sufficient supply to several regions in the state," said a senior UPPCL official. ref: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/noida/BHEL-blamed-for-long-outages/articleshow/22564028.cms