Result: a windfall for retired civil engineers, especially those from the government, including defence services and PWDs. In fact, several top construction firms have re-employed ex-servicemen to head important projects or supervise construction. A private firm recently filled up its entire board with ex-CPWD/PWD engineers paying them six times more than their last pay package. The result was a turnover that rose 15 times over in a year.

“The value of experienced civil engineers is high at present. While there are few newcomers, the ex-CPWD/PWD or army engineering corps officials are quickly being absorbed by the construction industry. With their volume of work experience, ability to understand and function with the government bidding process and an enabling private sector environment in place, these officials perform spectacularly well and can easily head and handle big projects”, says Sanjeev Ralhan, Co-ordinator, Builders Association of India (BAI).

Many government sector civil engineers have also taken voluntary retirement to move over to the private sector of late. So it falls in place when Indian Roads Congress (IRC) officials say that 30-40% of civil engineering posts across the government sector are lying vacant including at the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) that is at the forefront of the massive highway upgradation exercise.

For the 35 civil engineering vacancies at the Army’s Chennai-based Officers Training Academy (OTA) in Chennai this year, not a single candidate was found good enough to make it to the merit list.

Few students means few faculty and few resources — the vicious circle, experts say, shows up in the quality of the civil engineering course too. Industry experts say that there is also a wide gap between what is being taught at most private engineering colleges in the country and what contractor/employers are looking for.

... contd.