Trichy a Power plant equipment hub.

BHEL was the first. With a massive expansion of its facilities at Tiruchi, the public sector power equipment manufacturer has raised its capacity to produce boilers worth 10,000 MW. Ancillaries of BHEL, who fabricate material for the PSU, are literally gasping with plentiful orders. But BHEL is an old story. Look who else is coming in.

Toshiba has set up a joint venture with the JSW group (part of the O.P. Jindal Group and controlled by Mr Sajjan Jindal) to set up manufacturing facilities to produce turbines. The Rs 800-crore facility is coming up near Chennai. Toshiba holds 75 per cent stake in the joint venture and is among the larges Japanese investments in the State.

Ansaldo of Italy – a respected name in the thermal plant boiler business and now owned by Gammon India – has chosen to set up shop at Tiruchi to produce boilers. Initially, it intends to invest around Rs 150 crore, at which level of investments it would outsource heavily.

Ansaldo's group company and turbine manufacturer, Franco Tosi, is also looking at putting up a plant in Tamil Nadu.

Informed sources say that the company is looking at Chennai (port facilities) or Tiruchi (proximity to Ansaldo's plant) and would choose one of the two locations for establishing a manufacturing unit here.

Also many Indian companies have recently expanded capacities. Cethar Vessels, which has signed up joint ventures with Riley Power of the US for boilers and Power Machines of Russia for turbines, is a good example.

Next to BHEL, Cethar's is the biggest boiler manufacturing facility in the country – 8,000 MW – and the company is looking to raising its capacity further to 12,000 MW.

Also in Tiruchi, companies such as GB Engineering and Veesons are expanding, together making Tamil Nadu, a power equipment hub.