NPCIL faces shortage of engineers: Jain

Mumbai, Nov 14 (UNI) The nearly two decade old Nuclear Power Corporation of India ltd (NPCIL) is facing a major crisis of qualified engineers as nearly 150 have resigned in the last two years.

The NPCIL has a strenth of 2,000 engineers and 13,000 other staff, its Chief Managing Director S K Jain said in a brief interaction with reporters here yesterday after the inauguration of National Conference on Operating Experience of Nuclear Reactors and Power Plants 'Open UPP-2006', organised at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre.

He said against the backdrop of 100 engineers retiring every year, the resignations of 150 people had created more problems. He said the IT industry and big companies are attracting the engineers with lucrative salaries, three to four times more than here.

''Our efforts to appoint new engineers did not materialise much as the NPCIL could appoint 40 when actually 350 are needed,'' he added.

Mr Jain said the NPCIL is also thinking of offering lucrative packages for which government clearance is needed and added that fast promotions should also be offered to the young people.

He elaborated that youngsters are reluctant to work at the sites at distant places which is also one of the reasons for the growing number of resignations.

Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission Dr Anil Kakodkar admitted that the crisis was prevailing but said that it was the sign of progress. He said already efforts are on through universities and HRD to tackle this issue.

Director of BARC S Banerjee said this problem was at a relatively low side in BARC.

UNI JM MJ/OBB SP ND0930