After years of uncertainty, the Uttarakhand government is planning to revive the HMT unit at Ranibagh in Kumaon region by infusing fresh capital and also through sale of its unutilised land.
Under a new plan worked out by the department of industry, the government-owned cash-rich the State Infrastructure and Industrial Corporation of Uttarakhand Limited [SIDCUL] would enter into a joint venture with HMT to revive the manufacturing unit. Significantly, SIDCUL is credited for setting up key industrial estates like Haridwar and Pantnagar where top-notch companies set up shops.
Within ten years of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi inaugurating the Rs 65 crore factory in 1985, it went into red jeopardising the future of hundreds of its employees.
The SIDCUL is ready to infuse fresh capital in the factory which needs Rs 25 crore for its revival, Principal Secretary Industrial development Rakesh Sharma said here on Wednesday.
For this purpose, the government has also convened a high-level meeting at the industrial estate of Bheemtal in Kumaon region during the visit of Chief Minister B C Khanduri on December 11.
Khanduri would make an on-the-spot assessment of the industrial scenario in Bheemtal as part of the government’s efforts to entice investments in the hills.
“We are concerned about the HMT factory which is lying closed for over two decades now. By reviving the factory, we would also help all those people, who were working in it,” said Sharma adding the government has also suggested to the factory to sell its unutilised vast land to raise capital.
A government estimate suggests that nearly 400-500 people are still employed with the Ranibagh HMT factory.
