Watt lies ahead

BY 6 pm, a thin file of men in orange uniforms emerges slowly from a heavily barricaded main gate of the erstwhile Dabhol Power Company DPC...

BY 6 pm, a thin file of men in orange uniforms emerges slowly from a heavily barricaded main gate of the erstwhile Dabhol Power Company DPC. Outside, on a road cutting through the Sahyadris that once witnessed loud agitations against Enron 8212; 43 cases in neighbouring police stations are still not closed 8212; there is no traffic or bustle.

We wait opposite the gate by a long row of eateries and public telephone booths that pulled down shutters once the power project locked itself inside the desolate 1,600 acre campus, and listen to stories. Ajit Ahirrao 30, electrician, tells us the plant is rusting due to Konkan8217;s salty seaside air. 8216;8216;Scratch the paint and you8217;ll see the rust beneath,8217;8217; he says, alleging that inferior quality material, like 8216;8216;paint past its expiry date8217;8217;, is being used.

Ashok Chougule 44 is a carpenter back after two jobless years as a temporary maintenance worker on contract on an 8.30 am to 5.30 pm shift. 8216;8216;I am ordered to do odd jobs like weeding the garden. It8217;s not like the old times,8217;8217; he mumbles. 8216;8216;Now even the canteen is shut. Earlier we would get mutton, everything, now we don8217;t even get a cup of tea.8217;8217;

Security guards let us past the main gate into the security enclosure. But calls to officials inside don8217;t permit entry or data on the number of maintenance workers under contract until DPC gets reborn as Ratnagiri Gas and Power Private Limited. Estimates of workers on the job vary between 350 and 500.

OFF the highway to Goa, down in a cluster of three, large paddy-growing and fishing villages that the power project embraces, the ghost of Enron has been banished without sorting out unfinished business.

The loudest among the Shiv Sena-BJP activists with local clout say they will accept the project8217;s revival 8212; but with conditions attached. Topping the list is a very basic demand: jobs for locals.

8216;8216;Unlike our opposition in the old days, now we are not against the project,8217;8217; says Vitthal Bhalekar, sarpanch of Veldur village, where DPC boats dock and where the locals scan every news report on the negotiations for revival. 8216;8216;There are no avenues of employment in this region so we want jobs for locals, on priority, when the plant reopens.8217;8217;

Story continues below this ad

With a 3,500-strong population, Veldur8217;s laidback coastal landscape is as perfect as a postcard but its fishermen are aware that the day8217;s catch does not match a fixed income.

8216;8216;For a year and a half, I used to get Rs 2,500 a month as a helper in the plant,8217;8217; says fisherman Ashok Dabholkar. 8216;8216;With overtime, that went up to Rs 3,000. I don8217;t get that much in a month of fishing. And a job in a plant is better than fishing outdoors 24 hours.8217;8217;

GUHAGAR8217;S BJP MLA Vinay Natu told The Sunday Express that the village settlements 8212; currently facing eight-hour power cuts 8212; are not against the project8217;s revival but 8216;8216;local issues should be resolved first8217;8217;.

In Katalwadi, home to several of the 450 farmers who lost 610 hectares of farm land to the project site, Natu8217;s local strongman Yashwant Bait boasts 95 per cent of the village was opposed to the project. But his activists of the Enron Virudh Sangharsh Samiti have not lost steam though the project is now 8216;8216;Bharatiya8217;8217;.

Story continues below this ad

8216;8216;We will restart an andolan if local demands are not met,8217;8217; Bait promises, and makes a list: police cases against activists should be dropped. About 200 locals were promised jobs and only 55 got them. Forty-eight fishermen have not been paid damages of Rs 30,000 each for restricted fishing. Farmers lost land at Rs 75 lakh less than market value and must get interest.

Ignoring the rain sprinkling down, deputy sarpanch Aziz Mastan gets on his motorcycle to point out an incomplete drinking water project, locked up. 8216;8216;Let the state government promise us safe drinking water before restarting the project,8217;8217; he says, alluding to an old allegation that leakage from the plant8217;s storage tanks adulterated drinking water in the villages.

DOWN the road from DPC is a reminder of modern plans stuck in a time warp. The Dabhol Charitable Trust8217;s Niramay Hospital, inaugurated in November 1999, is closed. The garden has run wild or turned into dry scrub, while signboards warn against plucking flowers. 8216;8216;An up-to-date hospital,8217;8217; Mastan shakes his head.

8216;8216;I have two sons I sent to Mumbai after the plant shut down. One is a salesman, one is a wireman,8217;8217; says Pandurang Bhuwad who lost three hectares to the project in Katalwadi village, where activists like Bait hold clout. 8216;8216;I want the plant reopened so I can call them back to the village to apply for jobs.8217;8217;

Story continues below this ad

The gates are propped up by signs that the property is in the possession of the court receiver of the Bombay High Court. But along the fence remain some forgotten, fading signs of a different time.

They announce that the Dabhol Power Company, General Electric and Bechtel 8216;8216;welcome you8217;8217; to the Dabhol Power Project.