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Dabhol Power Co to sack all employees

Our Correspondent in Bombay

The Dabhol Power Company, which owns and runs the Enron-backed Dabhol power plant, has decided to lay off all its remaining employees in India, including those based at the Dabhol plant site.

This means that the services of the remaining 200 employees of the company will be terminated by the end of the week. Dabhol has 65 employees in its corporate headquarters in Bombay and about 135 employees at the power plant in Dabhol.

"A small core team will be engaged on a contract basis to undertake essential activities related to site security, pursuing legal claims and asset preservation, subject to adequate funding being received," DPC said in a faxed statement on Thursday.

The core team comprises of DPC managing director K Wade Cline, chief financial officer S Mohan Gurunath, senior vice-presidents Mukesh Tyagi, Sanjeev Khandekar, Jimmy Mogal and legal team member Paul Krasky among others.

However, the laid-off employees of both DPC and Enron India have been offered a 'substantive' exit package from their Houston-based parent company.

The recent lay-off is a third tranche of staff reduction at DPC. Earlier it handed over pink-slips to the employees of the now defunct Metropolitan Gas Company, Enron Broadband and to about 15,000 contract workers after construction at the site stopped in mid-June.

DPC has also said that it was compelled to take this step due to the MSEB and the Government of Maharashtra defaulting on payments. The squeeze on further payments by the lenders also meant that DPC has insufficient funds for staffing purposes.

The current move would mean that DPC has all but ceased to exist. The company now only has a plant left, the sale of which is being negotiated.

In addition to the DPC layoffs, Enron India Private Limited, Enron's Indian presence will also be severing all of its remaining employees in India, many of whom were working on the Dabhol project. To assist wrapping up its operations in India, the company will engage a few former employees on a contract basis.

Globally, Enron Corp has sacked 5,600 employees in Europe and the US this week.

(With additional inputs from PTI)

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