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4000 workers to get sack over DPC phase II suspension

BS Corporate Bureau

At least 4,000 labourers face an early termination of their contracts following the suspension of the 1,444 mw second phase of the Enron-promoted Dabhol power project at Guhagarh taluka in the Ratnagiri district of Maharashrtra.

DPC had suspended work on the second phase on Sunday as its contractor US--based Bechtel and equipment supplier General Electric had terminated their contracts. "At present, about 5,000 to 6,000 labourers are employed at the site.

In the normal course these labourers would have continued working at the site till November this year. The suspension of work will see the labour force being downsized to about 1,000 the Bechtel spokesman said..

Although 97 per cent of the second phase is complete the labourers would have been required for the 5 million tonne LNG terminal that is being set up as a part of the project. Also, construction of a jetty at the project site is yet to be completed.

These employees comprising mainly skilled and semi-skilled labourers like carpenters, welders and pipe layers are not directly employed by DPC.

They are either employees of the engineering, procurement and construction contractor to the project Bechtel or its various sub-contractors. Some of the sub-contractors to the project are UB Engineering, Besix and Paharpur Cooling Towers.

Meanwhile, there has been a major downsizing of the workforce at the project site over the last one month. There were about 15,000 employees about a month.

The Bechtel spokesman said the writing had been on the on the wall for sometime now as the institutions had stooped disbursing loans to DPC. This in turn had a cascading effect with DPC unable to meet its payment obligations.

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