22 October 2011 merinews

DVC saving fraudulent EPC contractor for misdeeds
V K Gupta
22 October, 2011

Damodar Valley Corporation has allegedly allowed Reliance Energy EPC contractor to dismantle only top portion of defective cooling tower at Raghunathpur thermal.
THE DAMODAR Valley Corporation (DVC) is going out of its way to save a fraudulent EPC contractor who constructed defective cooling tower of unit 1 of Raghunathpur thermal plant, alleged All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF).
AIPEF in a letter to Secretary Power has written that it makes no moral, ethical or financial sense for DVC to agree to a repair proposal just to save a fraudulent party from dismantling a structure of Rs.20 crore.

It may be mentioned that the construction of cooling tower involves the providing of steel reinforcement and Concreting in stages known as ''Lifts''. One cooling tower would have more than 70 Lifts. In the case of NDCT of unit -1, it was found that the construction agency had used lesser quantity of reinforcement steel between 32-35 lifts. DVC enquiry committee found that all lifts about 28th lift are not as per specification.

DVC in its meeting held on July 30 and considered the enquiry committee report and opted to go for hydro cutting proposal for dismantling the fraudulently constructed portion of cooling tower from 28th lift upward. According to official sources now that after the failure of hydro cutting proposal EPC Contractor now intends to try out a chemical treatment method.

It appears that a decision has been virtually taken that instead of dismantling the entire tower and constructing it afresh, the approach now is to dismantle only the portion above 28th lift and then to start construction from 28th lift upwards thereafter just to please the Reliance Energy Limited, EPC contractor. From the very beginning EPC contractor is avoiding dismantling the entire tower and restricting its rectification only to the upper portion of tower above 28th lift.

AIPEF in the letter mentioned that it is surprising that DVC enquiry committee report of July 20 was not put up to DVC Board for consideration/decision. However, a high-level meeting was held on July 30 and opted for hydro cutting option, how come, at later stage now the chemical treatment option has come up? It appears that the July 30 meeting was conducted entire purpose was to find an escape route for the fraudster with no corresponding safeguard for DVC in case of failure of a repaired structure.