TRANSFORMATION OF VALLUR

 

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 3^rd 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 7^th 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.