By IANS,
Chennai : Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is expected to inaugurate a new boiler plant of Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) at Tiruchirapalli this month, said a top company official here Wednesday.
“We are waiting for confirmation from the Prime Minister’s Office,” BHEL executive director V. Ananthakrishnan told reporters.
Home Minister P. Chidambaram, Heavy Industries Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, apart from several state ministers, are expected to be present, Ananthakrishnan said.
BHEL expanded its boiler manufacturing capacity at an outlay of around Rs.750 crore, building the new plant in Tiruchirappali, some 330 km from here.
The Rs.27,500-crore power equipment manufacturer has also decided to focus on research and development (R&D) by investing around Rs.1,000 by 2012.
“Last fiscal, the company invested around Rs.650 crore on R&D. This figure is expected to go up to Rs.1,000 crore by 2012,” said general manager R. Krishnan.
Additionally, BHEL has renewed its industrial consultancy, sponsored research and joint technologies development programme with Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M).