Bharat Forge prefers Gujarat over Bengal

Bharat Forge Ltd (BFL) has finally decided to shift its power equipment project to Gujarat, moving out from West Bengal, where it was 
facing hurdle in land acquisition, which was delaying the project.

When Gujarat CM Narendra Modi flies with Baba Kalyani, CMD, Bharat Forge Ltd (BFL), to Mundra Port and SEZ in Kutch district on Friday, one of India’s oldest automotive component companies would have initiated a metamorphosis for itself.

Modi, incidentally, is taking an uncharacteristic break from his annual ‘chintan shivir ’ in the Kutch desert to lay the foundation for the Rs 2,400 crore power equipment manufacturing facility by BFL and its French partner Alstom, a global leader in the sector. The unit will come up on 120 acres in the 6,700-acre SEZ.

Ironically, Modi’s counterpart in West Bengal, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, was almost ready to provide BFL land for its captive steel plant at Panagarh. But the process has now been delayed because land acquisition (in Burdwan district) has hit administrative hurdles. Modi took only two months in providing land and has already earmarked another 700 acres for other BFL projects.

With Alstom, BFL will introduce the most technologically advanced turbines and generators to support India’s move towards environmentally-friendly power generation. With a manufacturing capacity of 5,000 MW per annum, the venture will meet a quarter of the country’s foreseeable power equipment needs by 2012-13 .

The Rs 5,000-crore metalforming company is going through unprecedented change. From being India’s largest manufacturer and exporter of automotive component, it is now ambitiously moving into the fast moving capital goods business and gearing to become a predominantly non-automotive company in the next 24 months.

By 2014-15, more than 75 per cent of BFL’s revenues will come from non-automotive businesses, especially through initiatives in power, oil and gas, marine transport,railways and aerospace sectors.

“A doubledigit growth for the Indian economy requires a major expansion of the capital goods sector to effectively feed an industrial upsurge. We aim at contributing to the growth of the capital goods sector in India,” says Baba Kalyani, chairman, BFL. It has garnered its most expansive plans in power sector.

In another large venture in Gujarat (with French firm Areva), BFL is graduating to manufacture nuclear power plant components and equipment. A 14,000 tonne open-die press facility, the largest in this part of the world, will be established by 2012 representing a national capability, rolling out 550 tonne forging. A nuclear reactor needs 10-12 of such mammoth forging.

BFL, along with NTPC, is preparing to manufacture, large castings, high pressure piping, pumps and valves.

CMD Baba Kalyani is entering into power equipment biz and changing location due to land acquisition problem.