BHEL shares jump 6%, top Rs 200 level on Rs 19,422 crore order win report

Shares of Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) climbed 5 per cent in Monday's trade amid a media report, which quoting sources suggested that the PSU has emerged as the best bidder for a Rs 19,422-crore turnkey contract for building a thermal power plant for NLC India at Talabira, Odisha. A highly placed official told The Hindu businessline that BHEL quoted a better price than L&T-MHI, adding that the financial bids were opened on Friday. There was no such filing on stock exchanges either by BHEL or NLC India so far.

Following the development, BHEL shares climbed 5.78 per cent to hit a high of Rs 204.65 on BSE. At 9.25 am, shares of NLC India were up 1.56 per cent at R 257.30. Shares of Larsen & Toubro Ltd (L&T) were flat at Rs 3,525.05.

BHEL, as per the report, would build three ultra supercritical units of 800 MW each for NLC India at Talabira. The EPC tender was for the first three projects, the report said, adding that it was not clear whether or not there would be a separate tender for the fourth unit.

Also read: Are BHEL, NTPC shares overvalued? Disconnect between perception and reality, says Kotak

This is a big order for BHEL, which will load its plants at Haridwar (turbine-generator), Tiruchi (boilers) and Hyderabad (various other components such as pulveriser mills), the report suggested.

The power plant would be fed with coal from NLC’s Talabira mines. NLC will produce 14.5 million tonnes of coal from Talabira this year, but has plans to raise production to 20 million tonnes in a few years, as per the report.

A job of this size will take about five years to complete, experts in the field, said the report. The project was first designed to be put up at Sirkazhi in Tamil Nadu. It however was shifted to Talabira later in order to save the transporting coal cost from Talabira mines to down south.

As of September 30, NLC India had 3.6 GW of thermal power capacity and 1.4 GW of renewable energy and mining capacity of 50 million tonnes of lignite and coal, The Hindu businessline reported. As per the businessline report, the company has won two solar projects through competitive bidding processes — 600 MW in Gujarat and 800 MW in Rajasthan. The company has plans to increase electricity generation capacity to 17 GW by 2030.

Also read: Stock recommendations by market analyst for January 1, 2024: Dabur India, Suven Pharmaceuticals and Samvardhana Motherson