Calcutta, Aug. 31 :    Calcutta, Aug. 31:  The Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) is going in for the lean and trim look. After the successful implementation of its organisational restructuring early this month, ONGC has embarked on a massive manpower rationalisation. The company has decided to offer a fresh voluntary retirement scheme next week to reduce its 40,000-strong workforce by at least 4000. Speaking to The Telegraph, ONGC chairman Subir Raha said the company expects around 8-10 per cent of its employees to opt for the VRS package, which will result in significant cost advantages to ONGC in the long run. 'Several departments have surplus workers, especially those which are not directly connected to production like administration, finance and logistics. These have to be trimmed according to our needs,' he said. Raha said the company urgently needs to reduce manpower in 'support services' so that more people can be employed in departments where we have a manpower shortage. Asked whether the company has any plans to roll back the retirement age from 60 to 58 years, Raha said ' this may be considered.' 'But our first priority is to get rid of surplus staff through the VRS so that employee morale is not affected,' he said. The proposed VRS will be open for the next two to three months, he noted. ONGC had offered a VRS two years back and 2500 employees had then opted for the scheme. The company has also decided to outsource services which are not directly linked to production. Besides reducing manpower, the company has also decided to strictly implement its transfer policy. 'Employees or executives stationed in metros for five years should be transferred,' Raha said. The chairman however added that the management could always exercise its discretion to allow someone to stay in a place more than the stipulated time, depending on his or her family problems. Meanwhile, Raha said the company is seeking management decontrol in order to have a level playing field as and when the oil sector is opened up in April 2002. 'We have discussed the matter in SCOPE. This is very important for us to compete with both domestic and global oil producers,' he said.