Central Water Commission

Central Water Engineering Service (CWES) Group ‘A’ Service was formally constituted in the year 1965, though the cadre had been building since April, 1945 when Central Waterways, Irrigation and Navigation Commission (CWINC) was constituted. CWES is the only organized Group ‘A’ Service at central government dealing with water sector. CWES was mainly constituted with the objective of efficiently manning the various formations of the Government of India (GOI) dealing with water resources development.

CWES officers, belonging to Civil Engineering or Mechanical Engineering streams, are either directly recruited for the Group-A posts by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) on the basis of Engineering Services Examination (ESE) or by way of promotion of Group-B officers in the feeder grade.

National Water Academy (NWA), Pune, the in house training institute of Central Water Commission (CWC), conducts induction training program for the directly recruited CWES officers joining at the assistant director level. The promotee CWES officers also undergo an orientation course at NWA. These trainings expose CWES officers to various aspects/ issues of water sector and enable them with various techno-managerial tools to deal with various challenges in the sector. Besides, NWA also conducts Mandatory Cadre Training Programs, various types of trainings and capacity building programs for CWES officers at different levels throughout the year. CWES officers are also sent on foreign trainings on a regular basis.

CWES officers head important organisations under the Department of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation (DoWR, RD & GR), Ministry of Jal Shakti. Majority of the CWES officers are posted in Central Water Commission (CWC), while a sizeable no. of posts of CWES are also encadered in other organizations. This includes encadered posts in DoWR, RD & GR, Central Electricity Authority (CEA), Ganga Flood Control Commission (GFCC), Farakka Barrage Project (FBP), Krishna River Management Board (KRMB), Godavari River Management Board (GRMB), Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) etc.

Opportunities are also available for CWES officers to steer other organisations e.g. National Water Development Agency (NWDA), Central Water & Power Research Station (CWPRS), Central Soil & Material Research Station (CSMRS), National Institute of Hydrology (NIH), Upper Yamuna River Board (UYRB), etc. CWES officers are also deputed on foreign assignments of planning and execution of Water Resources Projects and other long and short term deputations in international institutions such as Asian Development Bank (ADB). In addition, CWES Gr.‘A’ officers avail opportunities of serving on important posts in other Govt. departments through Central Staffing Scheme(CSS).

Positions and Designations held by CWES officers in their career are as below-

According to prevalent recruitment rules for CWES cadre, an officer is expected to put in minimum 4 years of service at the Junior Time Scale (JTS) level, and nine years at Senior Time Scale (STS) level before his or her promotion to the Junior Administrative Grade (JAG) level. During their tenure at JTS and STS level, the officers develop requisite competencies for bigger responsibilities at JAG level. At JAG and above, the officers are required to deliver well defined output. A CWES officer may further be promoted to Senior Administrative Grade (SAG) level and Higher Administrative Grade (HAG) level after putting in a minimum of 17 years and 25 years of Gr. A service respectively subject to other terms and conditions.