RPower seeks 15,000 visas for China staff

Reliance Power, which recently tied up with Shanghai Electric Corporation (SEC) for supply of 36 coal-fired generators for its power projects, has approached the Union home ministry for issuance of visas to Chinese engineers and technicians to install the super-critical units.The Anil Ambani-led company may require at least 3,000 visas to begin with, according to a senior official. But, sources close to the ministry said that the group had sought approval for as many as 15,000 visas. According to these sources, the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) chairman Anil Ambani met top officials of the MHA last week to inform the ministry on the need for Chinese engineers and technicians to set up the thermal power generation units.

The super-critical equipment, to be supplied by SEC under a $8.3-billion deal, are to be installed across Reliance Power’s three 3,960-mw ultra mega power projects (UMPPs) at Sasan (Madhya Pradesh), Krishnapatnam (Andhra Pradesh ) and Tilaiya (Jharkhand) and its 4,000-mw Chitrangi mega power project in Madhya Pradesh. A senior official of the group explained that each ultra-mega project would have as many as 25,000 people working on the site and the number of Chinese workers could come to up to 4% of this, or 1,000 for each project.

ADAG is implementing three of these giant power projects so the total number of Chinese would could be at least 3,000. In his meetings, Ambani is said to have stressed the inevitability of having Chinese professionals set up the super-critical equipment at the four power projects, as such expertise was not available domestically. The home ministry has asked him to make a formal request, which will then sbe duly examined.When contacted, a ADAG spokesperson said the company had not moved any application seeking visas for Chinese staff.

Last year, the MHA had cracked down on business projects employing bulk Chinese staff for unskilled and routine jobs, when similar workers were readily available within the country. Also, most of this cheap Chinese labour was brought in on business visas and not employment visas as required by the rules.

The MHA set a year-end deadline for all Chinese employed on business projects here to convert their business visa to employment visa, and ensured that the latter was issued only against skills not available in the domestic labour market. This resulted in many Chinese workers returning to their home country, even as some stayed on, this time on an employment visa.

Reliance Power's request for visas for Chinese engineers and technicians comes close on the heels of it signing an unprecedented $1.1 billion financing deal from Chinese banks for its Sasan ultra mega power project in Madhya Pradesh.

"The Chinese bank financing of over Rs 5,000 crore ($1.1 billion) is to support import of power equipment from Shanghai Electric. This is the largest financing provided by Chinese banks to an Indian project across various sectors," a statement from Reliance Power had said soon after the deal. The final commitment from the Chinese banks — Bank of China (BOC), China Development Bank (CDB) and the Export Import Bank of China (C-EXIM ) — came during Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to India earlier this month.