NTC to sell mill land in Gujarat

National Textile Corporation (NTC) has decided to sell the land of the nine mills it owns in Gujarat to pay the employees who have opted for Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS).

The Corporation has also decided to invest Rs 500 crore for modernisation of 16 mills. NTC managing director, V K Tripathi, who was in Ahmedabad on Monday, said, "We have already sought the permission of the state government for selling these properties.

"We will hand over 20 per cent of the realised amount to the state government, as per the conditions of the sale of properties owned by NTC. We are yet to decide on the mode of sale _ whether to adopt the auction method or go for issuing tenders for selling."

Interestingly, all the nine mills had played a major role in making Gujarat the Manchester of India. But they stopped functioning once the Corporation turned sick.

Five of the nine mills that the Corporation has put on sale are in Ahmedabad. Together these mills occupy 53 acres of prime land in the city. The Corporation expects to realise Rs 90 crore from the sales.

These include Rajnagar Mills at Asarwa, Himadri Mills at Manekchowk area, portion of the Ahmedabad New Textile Mills at Raipur, Ahmedabad Jupiter Textile Mills and New Manekchowk Textile Mills near Dariapur area.

NTC will also offer the entire block of land of Fine Knitting Mills at Asarwa to Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC). NTC will also sell off the surplus land of 8.72 acre of the Rajkot Textile Mills and the 16.32 acre of the Mahalakshmi Textile Mills at Bhavnagar.

The Corporation will also sell the 30 acre of Petlad Textile Mills in Anand district. These sales are expected to bring in around Rs 18 crore, the Corporation officials said.

"While we will put the surplus land of the Ahmedabad New Textile Mills and Rajnagar Textile Mills on sale, we will modernise the machinery of this mill to increase productivity and quality. NTC will retain both these mills," Tripathi said.

"But we have finalised to offer VRS to around 2,000 employees in next three to four months to cut down staff cost and make these mills more financially strong," he added.

When asked about how the Corporation proposes to fund its modernisation and VRS expenses pegged at Rs 1,300 crore, he explained that besides the sale proceeds, NTC will also use Rs 600 crore it raised through public bonds.