Tangedco abolishes 420 posts in 3 thermal power projects

The decision to abolish hundreds of existing posts were taken as per the orders of Tangedco Board following its 91st meeting held in November last year. The board deemed these posts unnecessary after the project management consultancy contracts were awarded.

Following the board’s order, the Director (Projects) has submitted the proposal to utilise minimum staff to execute the project. According to the proposal, the Ennore Thermal Power Station (ETPS) expansion project, which was the first one to be awarded engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract by the State government in July 2014, has the sanction of 155 posts in various disciplines for four years or till the completion of the project.

The Director has suggested retaining only seven posts in the ETPS expansion project, including chief engineer (Civil), and divert 15 posts to the 800 MW North Chennai Thermal Power Plant Stage III to assist in the commissioning of the project. The rest 133 posts would be abolished.

In the case of the Uppur Supercritical project, it was decided to abolish 147 of the 167 sanctioned posts, retaining only the remaining 20 posts. Similarly, only 21 of the 194 posts would be retained for the Udangudi Supercritical project, while rest would be abolished.

Trade union sources said that despite the presence of the board engineers and staffs, all the thermal power projects were running with a delay of up to 40 months.

“We fear that the abolishing hundreds of posts would only lead to more delay in the execution of the projects considering less supervision. We will demand the management to retain the existing posts if not all the sanctioned posts. There are several vacant posts which could be abolished,” sources added.

A senior Tangedco official said the idea was to avoid unnecessary waste of manpower at the project sites after the appointment of the consultancy to oversee the works. “We expect the thermal power plants will be commissioned as per schedule,” he said.