A proposal by the State Infrastructure and Industrial Development Corporation of Uttarakhand Ltd (SIDCUL) to extend the lease of Kashipur and Jaspur spinning mills for a further period of five years has been deferred.
The SIDCUL has put up the proposal before its Board of Directors headed by Chief Secretary S K Das to give extension to the lease agreement from 10 to 15 years.
When contacted, a top official said the SIDCUL Board has put the ball in the court of the department of industry to decide the issue regarding the extension of lease. The Board also directed the industry department to study the earlier agreements with Alps Industry before taking any decision.
The proposal was initially being mooted by Alps Industries, which was given the two sick mills on lease rental for a period of ten years by SIDCUL, a state government nodal agency for industrial development in the state.
The two mills were given to the Alps Industries, which recently set up a textile mill at Haridwar, with a view to remove their sickness.
Forwarding the proposal to SIDCUL, the Alps Industries has expressed its readiness to modernize machines of the two mills provided the lease can be extended for a period of five years.
Kashipur spinning mill has the capacity of 50,000 spindles while Jaspur has the capacity of 25000 spindles.
The Uttarakhand government took over Jaspur and Kashipur spinning mills from Uttar Pradesh State Textile Corporation (UPSTC) at a time when the two mills were declared sick. The mills remained close for several years.
The Uttar Pradesh government had referred the cases related to sickness of the two mills to Board of Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR). At the request of the Uttarakhand government, BIFR agreed to handover the two mills to the hill state for the revival and asked the government to pay the workers’ dues.
The SIDCUL, after taking over the two mills from UPSTC, initiated steps to revive the two mills. Later, SIDCUL invited Expression of Interests (EOIs) from private parties regarding the revival plans of the two mills and subsequently gave them on lease to Alps Industries.
