State-run BHEL is on a hiring spree, and would add 8,000 employees to its

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workforce in the next two years to meet the growing domestic demand.

"We are recruiting people at the rate of 4,000 per year. Last two years we have done... This year also we are on track to do this," CMD BHEL B P Rao told reporters here.

BHEL had set a target to add 20,000 people in the current Five-Year Plan (2007-12), of which over half have already been enrolled.

The power equipment manufacturer would be adding another 8,000 people in the remaining two years of the plan period.

About 12,000 of the company's workforce is due to retire in the current plan period, another official said.

Currently, the company has about 48,000 employees.

BHEL manufactures equipment that can generate 10,000 MW electricity and is planning to ramp up this capacity to 20,000 by the end of the XIth Five-Year Plan.

Rao also said that BHEL alone cannot be blamed for the delay in supplying equipment to power projects as the country aims to add 78,000 MW electricity by 2012.

"There are number of factors that have to be taken into account for the delay," he said, adding that the factors, include absence of castings and forgings makers in the country. BHEL has to import castings and forgings for making equipment from overseas, which takes time.

"But, however, we have geared up," Rao said, adding that the company was bringing in new technologies, forming JVs and employing people to overcome delays.