L&T MHI JV inaugurates Surat plant

In a major milestone for power plant manufacture in India, a joint venture of Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) inaugurated the country?s first private sector facilities for the manufacture of supercritical boilers and turbine generators at Hazira, Surat.

The inaugural function for the supercritical boiler facility was attended by Vilasrao Deshmukh, Union Minister of Heavy Industry & Public Enterprises, Sushil Kumar Shinde, Union Minister of Power and Bharatsinh Solanki, Minister of State for Power. Later in the day, the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi attended the inau gural function of the facility for supercritical turbine generators.

Speaking on the occasion, A. M. Naik, Chairman and Managing Director, L&T said, ?It is imperative that India builds domestic capacity for such critical equipment for the power sector. The L&T-MHI facilities are a step in that direction. It is a world class facility that will produce world class products?.

Supercritical technology for coal-fired power plants is globally recognized as one of the most eco-friendly solutions to power generation, said the company on Tuesday.

The technology ensures higher fuel efficiency leading to higher plant efficiency. Carbon emissions are reduced by as much as 5%.

The L&T-MHI facilities are among the largest of their kind in the world, with a present annual capacity of manufacturing 5,000 MW of equipment, to be expanded to 6,000 MW by 2012.

Larsen & Toubro is a USD 9.8 billion technology, engineering & construction group with global operations.