A joint venture of Nissho Iwai Corporation and Fuji Electric Company has received an order from the Indian state of Maharashtra to supply turbines and electromechanical equipment for a 250MW pumped storage power plant, in cooperation with Bharat Heavy Electrical Ltd (BHEL) of India. BHEL, an Indian government owned corporation, is a manufacturer of heavy electrical machinery. The central government of India is also considering easing the exposure cap on local financial institutions, currently restricting them to only 10% of project cost. This is to be applied to projects that source equipment from BHEL.
The equipment order, estimated to cost about ¥8B, is expected to come on stream in December 2000. India will finance the project with part of an ¥11.4B loan from the Japanese government, which was approved by Japan in 1988. However, construction of the plant was delayed until environmental-impact issues were resolved.