BALASORE: Here is a piece of good news for industrial sector and people in Northern region of Odisha. The Balasore unit of Birla Tyres, a division of the B K Birla flagship Kesoram Industries Limited is likely to run at full capacity of 275 tonnes of tyres per day or 15 lakh tyres per annum from March.
This plant had reduced its production and was operational for only 7 to 15 days per
month for the last couple of years putting the fate of nearly 4,000 workers in stake. The partial closure of the plant had also affected the economy of the coastal town of which nearly 10,000 families directly or indirectly depend on this plant.
Though the company authorities are yet make a formal announcement in this regard, a company insider informed ‘The New Indian Express’ that a top company official informed them about the decision of the management during a meeting of the executives on Thursday.
“This is definitely a good decision. We all were eagerly waiting for it since long. Now the plant will run for the entire month and there will be no off on Sunday. Company casuals and contractual workers will get more job days and the permanent employees will get full remuneration as per salary slabs,” he said requesting anonymity.
The employees are however expecting the announcement on March 2 when the plant will reopen after a vacation of nearly 18 days. This apart, sources said, the company is also likely to recruit hundreds of workmen for its radial tyre unit to start production very soon.
Set up with an investment of Rs 453 crore, the radial tyre unit here was dragged into controversy following a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) against it in the High Court. The company, which has been incurring a loss since 2010-11 in its Balasore plant, had to pay Rs 5 crore per month as interest to the funding bank for the last couple of years adding to the woes of the plant management.
This leading manufacturing industry of automobile tyres, tubes and flaps had set up its first factory at Chhanpur on the outskirt of Balasore town in collaboration with world-renowned tyre manufacturer Pirelli in 1991 with an initial investment of Rs 270 crore and was exporting tyres to 50 countries.
But for the last five years it has been suffering from labour unrests over wage
settlements and the production was slashed drastically since 2012 due to slump in the global tyre market. Its turnover reduced from nearly Rs 1,200 crore annually to around Rs 650 crore following the global recession.
However, the decision to run the Balasore plant at full capacity is said to have been taken amidst the speculations of hiving off and selling of its Rs 3,573 crore Haridwar tyre plant, which have a production capacity of over 44 lakh truck tyres per year.
Kesoram Industries sells tyres under the Birla tyres brand and at present it has altogether five tyre units — four at Haridwar in Uttarakhand and one at Balasore. It has a debt pile of over Rs 4,000 crore and the company is said to have been restructuring its operations to repay debt.