TRANSFORMATION
OF VALLUR
On a Diwali
day in October 2014 I received a transfer order from NTPC Ramagundam to NTECL
Vallur. Immediately afterwards I had to go to Delhi on an official tour to
attend customer meet arranged by BHEL and discussion with Corporate OS an issue
related to Ramagundam boiler. I was advised by ED (R) R K Srivastav sir to meet
RED (S) R Venkateswaran sir on my way back at SRHQ.
During my
Delhi trip I met ED (OS) Y V Rao Sir. He told me that it would be very
difficult to work in Vallur and condition of the plant and township are really
testing for anyone. At BHEL customer meet I met Sri NIzamuddin AGM contracts who was already known to me and
Sri R Bharadwaj AGM CCD. When asked they told me that problems of Vallur are only to be
seen to be believed. As had been advised , I went to SRHQ office to meet
Venkateswaran Sir. After seeing me he had showed the MW reading of Southern
Region in which all three units of NTECL were reading “0”,”0” and “0”. Sir had
explained that one unit was having tube leakage for last three days , the other
unit which was just synchronized after overhaul also had BTL on that day and 3rd
unit commercial operation was getting delayed due to various reasons. He had
told me that he wishes to see 1500 MW like Ramagundam.
On November
7th NTPC raising day I got down from suburban train in
Attipattupudunagar station after around 12 hour journey in GT express. My
friend Sri Sarat Babu sent a vehicle for me. Driver Mr Mohan with a broken
telugu wished me and uttered this “ Sir, I heard that you are coming as boiler pressure parts incharge. One boiler is having
tube leakage and every alternate day there will be tube leakage”. Initially I had
wondered how even a driver was so well informed but later on I came to know
that he is a driver for BMD vehicle. After reaching township and taking bath ,
I went for ICH breakfast as usual everywhere in NTPC. There I met Sri K
Satyanarayana Engineer operation who closely worked with me earlier at
Ramagundam. During conversation he told me this “ Sir, don’t compare Vallur
with Ramagundam. Here no unit runs continuously for 10 days. It trips or is
stopped for various reasons. There is no system that runs trouble free”. With
these type of feedback, On the same day I joined here with the cooperation of
Sri Ponnambalam DGM HR and reported to Narendra Sir GM O&M. Within one week
I had realised that none of them exaggerated.
After 7
years I could see a lot of change though there are still lot of problems and
still lot of work to be done. I will not tell all but some representative
things. The company declared dividend two times in a row , declaring full DC
consecutively two years, Unit 1 running continuously for more than 150 days two
times, station running for 46 days, Ash utilisation of more than 100% for last
two years and many more.
Still there
are lot of challenges associated with man power optimization, corrosion related
issues, environmental obligations being nearer to metro city, coal
transportation, coal availability and pending receivables from beneficiaries to
name a few.
BUT WITH
LAST 7 YEARS EXPERIENCE, NOW I AM MORE CONFIDENT THAT NTECL TEAM CAN DELIVER.
