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Closure of DPC plant brings life to a standstill in Ratnagiri

Surat Thakur

An eerie calm hangs over the tiny village of Anjanwel in Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra, which till recently was the hub of frenetic activity as work on the 2,184 mw Dabhol Power Company was going on at full swing.

The DPC project, covering around 1,650 hectares of land, includes eight hamlets viz., Anjanwel, Navanagar, Sakhariagar, Weldure, Ranvi, Tali, Ambalali and Khikali with the Dabhol village being located adjacent to Srikhudi Khadi---all of whom have been affected by the closure of the plant.

Sixty-eight year old fisherman, Mahadeo Kamble, said that when work on the project was going on at full speed, the whole area would be abuzz with activity with vehicles whizzing past round-the-clock. The place would be so congested that there would hardly be any place for pedestrians to walk, Kamble recounted.

Not anymore. Today, the barracks built by the company for the plant employees stand forlorn and empty, a big lock hangs at the maingate of the shopping complex and a place which used to be alive all 24 hours now comes to a standstill at seven in the evening.

When approached, a contract labourer, who had come out of the plant for a lunch break, said on condition of anonymity, 'Sahab abhi keval 50 se 60 maintenance workers liye hai'. (presently, only 50 to 60 workers have been hired for maintenance purposes).

He said the whole plant was empty and some of the company officials were putting up in the barracks. He also said that due to the ongoing financial crisis in the company, the workers were also not getting their dues on time.

He said that 15 days ago the company shifted some material from the plant, which was unloaded at Weldur village.

Only materials belonging to Enron remains in the plant while that belonging to Bechtel has been taken away, he further said.

V K Dhumal, who works as a labour contractor for Enron, disclosed that the company had hired a plot of land from a private party at Weldur to store valuable equipment for security purposes.

However, auctioning of old vehicles, scrap material and furniture, had begun around two-three months ago, he added.

Though the auction attracted bidders from as far as Delhi and Mumbai, the company gave preference to its employees and contractors, Dhumal said.

Equbal Mastan, another Enron contractor, told that the company had also resorted to selling scrap to clear the pending bills of contractors and had at times even returned raw material ordered by it because of its inability to make payments.

To a query on whether plant equipment was being properly maintained, a labourer said that while sufficient measures had been taken to preserve all the equipment inside the plant, no apparent safety measures had been taken to prevent any damage to the building.

The Enron project had brought all the obvious symbols of 'development' to the district---broad roads, the 50-bed Nirmaya hospital set up by the company, an English-medium school and the accompanying fame had also attracted the occasional tourist or high-flying visitor.

UNI

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