The commissioning of the 660mw supercritical unit at Sagardighi Thermal Power Plant has run into rough weather as recruitment of about 1,000 engineers and related experts to run the unit came to a halt after Calcutta High Court stayed the state government's notification classifying 140 sub-castes as OBCs.

“All required steps to issue advertisements for recruiting nearly 1,000 engineers and allied experts to make the first supercritical unit of Bengal at Sagardighi Thermal Power Plant were completed.... But the stay on the fresh OBC list prepared by the state has halted the process, delaying the unit's operation,” said a source in the state administration.

The thermal plant in Murshidabad district is run by the West Bengal Power Development Corporation Limited.

The commissioning of the supercritical unit at Sagardighi was important for the Trinamool Congress establishment, which wanted to showcase the unit as a major achievement ahead of the 2026 Assembly polls. As more than 1,000 people are supposed to be recruited to the unit, it would have been a weapon for the ruling establishment to counter the charge that the government did little to generate employment opportunities in Bengal.

“The plan was to kick off the unit ahead of the polls. But as the recruitment of the engineers has halted, it is not clear whether the unit could be inaugurated before the polls,” said a source.

Sources also said that since the new unit would have to be monitored 24 hours a day, engineers needed to be posted in three shifts every day.

“The unit cannot be run with the existing strength of engineers... This is why the recruitment of so many engineers is essential to run the unit,” said another source.

The commissioning of the first supercritical unit is important for the state government as it has plans to build four more supercritical units in the PPP model soon.

In a supercritical power unit, water is heated to a state where it is neither a distinct liquid nor a gas but is supercritical. By operating at these supercritical conditions, the power plants can convert a greater percentage of the heat from fuel combustion into electricity. These units require less fuel or coal to produce the same amount of electricity compared to subcritical plants. As a result, it causes lower emissions of greenhouse gases.

Despite the state's all out efforts to complete several recruitments ahead of the 2026 Assembly polls by classifying 140 sub-castes as OBCs after the Calcutta High Court had earlier canceled all OBC certificates issued after 2010, the recruitment processes came to a halt following the stay order on the fresh list of OBCs prepared by the state.

As a result of the high court order in 2024, all sub-castes, which were included in the OBC category after 2010, lost the tag. Only 68 sub-castes, which were included in the OBC list before 2010, retained their tag.

“But the government wanted to extend the OBC reservation to more economically weaker sub-castes. This is why fresh surveys were conducted, and 74 more sub-castes were included in the list. But since the high Court issued a stay order on the fresh list also, the majority of the recruitment process has come to a halt, including those for the Sagardighi unit,” said a source.