Separate engineering cadre approved for PWD

The Centre has approved a proposal to separate 3,214 sanctioned engineering posts in Delhi’s Public Works Department from the Central Public Works Department cadre. The Government allowed them to operate as an independent Delhi PWD Engineering Cadre, Chief Minister Rekha Gupta announced on Wednesday.

The approval follows a decision taken by the Delhi Cabinet. The Chief Minister called it a historic step toward making Delhi a developed, safe and world-class capital. The Chief Minister said the decision carried far-reaching implications for Delhi’s development and administrative system, describing the creation of a separate engineering cadre as a move aimed at speeding up development works, making the engineering system more effective and ensuring greater accountability among officials.

Until now, PWD Delhi’s engineering wing had no independent cadre of its own, relying largely on the CPWD cadre.

The department’s engineering wing had 3,214 sanctioned posts spread across 36 categories under CPWD, with appointments made through the central Government’s system. The Chief Minister said this arrangement had at times made it difficult to take prompt decisions aligned with Delhi’s own administrative and development needs.

She said Delhi’s development requirements differ from other regions, given the capital’s continuous need for construction and maintenance of roads, bridges, buildings, offices and other public infrastructure. She said no concrete decision had been taken on establishing a separate engineering cadre for nearly 30 years, despite the long-standing need, and that her Government had moved to address this gap. With the Centre’s approval now secured, the path has cleared for implementing the reform.

The Chief Minister said the biggest benefit of the separate cadre would be the Delhi Government’s ability to operate its engineering system more effectively, in line with its specific development needs. She said this would make it easier to ensure availability of engineers, fill vacant posts, monitor ongoing works and advance development projects, without long-term dependence on another cadre for the capital’s development requirements.

She pointed to a range of upcoming construction needs, including a new Secretariat, mini-secretariats across all 11 districts, and strengthening of mandis, sports grounds and other administrative and public infrastructure. She said continuous work on roads, bridges and related infrastructure would also need to proceed across the capital, all of which required a strong, capable and accountable engineering system.

A central component of the Centre’s approval is that all 3,214 sanctioned posts in PWD Delhi’s engineering wing will be separated from the CPWD cadre and placed under the independent Delhi PWD Engineering Cadre.

With a separate cadre now in place, the Chief Minister said the Delhi Government would be able to link the responsibilities of engineering officials and monitoring of their work more directly with its own administrative system, closing a gap that had complicated accountability in the past.

PWD minister Parvesh Sahib Singh, in a post on X, thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for Centre’s decision, saying it was a long-pending demand of Delhi.

The approval of a separate Delhi PWD engineering cadre is a historic step that will bring more accountability and efficiency to the way we build and maintain Delhi’s infrastructure,” Singh said.

He hoped the separate engineering cadre will ensure better roads, bridges and public infrastructure for the people of Delhi.