Bharat Forge hunting for land for mega complex
MUMBAI: Larsen & Toubro (L&T), the Mumbai-based heavy engineering major, and Bharat Forge, the Pune-based metal forging company, are readying to tap the nuclear power opportunity ahead by firming up their forging plans.
While L&T has lined up investments of Rs 2,000 crore in its proposed forging plant at Hazira, Bharat Forge is scouting for land for a mega greenfield project.
The Hazira plant marks L&T’s foray into the forging business.
A M Naik, chairman and managing director, L&T, said the plant would be a part of the company’s heavy engineering division that would manufacture and supply products for the proposed nuclear power plants in the country. He was speaking on the sidelines of the Indian Nuclear Society’s nineteenth annual conference, titled ‘Nuclear Technology - Role of Industry’.
Naik said the Hazira plant’s construction has begun and would be completed in 30 months. He added that L&T has no plans to enter nuclear power generation as that would require an amendment in the Electricity Act. “I hope in the next two-three years, the government will allow private participation in nuclear power generation,” he said.
Meanwhile, Bharat Forge, which is planning to build a mega forging complex, will supply products not only to nuclear plants but also to steel units and thermal power plants. A company official, on condition of anonymity, said the proposed plant would have a 14,000-tonne open die forging press, a 125-tonne electric arc furnace and a casting bay to manufacture heavy castings. It will also manufacture 500 tonnes of ingots.
Products manufactured at the complex will be shells, domes and tube sheets for nuclear power plants, turbine rotors and generator shafts for power generation projects, pressure vessel forgings like shells, tube sheets and dished ends for the petrochemical industry and items used in steel and ship-building sectors.
Due to its size, the complex won’t be set up at Bharat Forge’s Mundwa facility in Pune.
“We are looking for land for the project and expect to finalise details, including investment plans, in two-three months,” he said. The construction of the complex is expected to be completed by the end of financial year 2011-12.
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