The recent auction of the closed Calico Mills that fetched bids of over Rs 270 crore on Saturday may have opened doors for a new realty to take shape in the form of a huge township. It also echoes the shutting of a glorious chapter in history that wrote Ahmedabad the Manchester of India.
Time however hasn't moved much for the workers – as many as 9,000 – most of who have been fighting a long battle all these years to hold an empire whose time was just ripe then.
Reflecting the testimony of times is the company's towering chimney whose siren made people stand and adjust their watches. Though that time is lost, the chimney still stands, only in silence now.
The workers and some of the financial institutions that are yet to recover their dues are likely to object to the bid price of the main plot in Ahmedabad.
The plot in question lies on a prime location in the Sabarmati Riverfront area and has been sold at about Rs 7,200 per sq yard which is less than the prevailing Jantri rates of about Rs 11,000 per sq yard, sources privy to the development told Business Standard. Interestingly, in the same auction, another plot lying on the eastern side of the city, though much smaller in size, was auctioned for Rs 13,700 per sq yard, fetching about Rs 48 crore.
“We will oppose the deal when it comes before the court for approval. The minimum price that Calico deal should be Rs 400 crore and this could go even up to Rs 1,000 crore,” said Rajesh Mankad, who representing workers of Vadodara unit of Calico.
Even workers of Ahmedabad unit are planning to oppose the deal, he said.
In 2005, the valuation of Calico property at Mumbai was estimated at Rs 38-40 crore and the bids invited by official liquidator fetched tenders in the range of Rs 75-110 crore. However, these bids were challenged before the court and the winners were asked to re-bid, according to Mankad. Finally, the property was sold for Rs 240 crore, he added.
Atleast a dozen players are aiming to enter into re-bidding when the deal is presented before the Gujarat High Court for final approval, sources said.
The workers of Calico Mills have so far been paid about Rs 1.5 lakh each as compensation. About Rs 90 crore have been disbursed to workers and an equal amount is remaining, said sources close to the development.
Most of these workers have taken up odd jobs like agarbatti making, working at tea or pan stalls and some have even turned to cart-pullers.
Calico was one of the city’s earliest textile mills founded in 1880 by Maganbhai Karamchand who was one of the financiers of a mill owned by Ranchhodlal Chohotalal – the first chairman of Calico.
For half a century, under the stewardship of Ambalal Sarabhai, the grandson of Maganbhai Karamchand, the Calico Mills became one of the most modern and extensively diversified pacesetters of the Indian cotton industry. Calico was the first Indian mill to give shareholders cloth at concessional rate of 15 per cent on 100 meters of cloth a year. The blue-chip company had over 85,000 shareholders at one point of time in the 80s.
It was the first Indian textile mill to make cotton sewing thread, and later 100% synthetic sewing thread.
Calico’s main textile unit was the only textile plant in Ahmedabad fuelled by natural gas, with virtually no smoke and no air pollution.
By the end of the nineteenth century and for the next two decades Ahmedabad was known as the Manchestar of India with 29 mills employing 17,000 workers.
However, with globalization seeping into India, the mills soon started facing financial crisis and fell one after the other like a pack of cards.
Calico mill went into liquidation in 1982.
The Bakeri group along with Mumbai based Ajmera group who have bagged the main plot aim to set up a residential project in the area.
“This is the cheapest land available and the final product should be atleast 20 per cent cheaper than what is offer in the western part of the city. One can expect affordable housing in the main plot area,” said Vijay Shah, a real estate developer.
AMC has decided to restore the chimney as a heritage structure.
