KOLLAM: Bidding farewell to the sad memories of untold miseries and unending despair, the large gates of Punalur Paper Mill will once again be opened on April 15. When the siren sounds again from the mill compound, around 150 employees will once again tread the renovated plant No 1 to make a fresh start to the company as well as to their life. For many of them, it will be a fresh lease of life after the heavy iron gates of the mill were locked out on August 30, 1987.
Akhula Boards, an Andhra Pradesh-based company and a consortium of private entrepreneurs from Punalur, are behind the revamping of the legendary paper mill that once had the envious status of being the first registered joint stock company in Travancore.
Started by T J Camaron of Germany in 1888, the mill had a tradition of supplying papers to the security press at Nasik. The reopening of the mill has turned out to be ‘Vishu gift’ for the natives of Punalur.
The company has been facing a lot of problems under different owners. It changed its name many a times as Travancore paper Mill, Lakshmi Paper Mill, Meenakshi Paper Mill and Punalur Paper Mills Ltd under AVM and Company in 1931.
In 1968, L N Dalmiya and Kunal Dalmiya came to the helm of the company. But on August 30, 1987, it was closed, virtually stopping the heart beats of over 1,200 employees.
Despite making earnest efforts to revamp the mill since 2002, it took nine years to get it redeemed from the rule of the receiver. The company’s renovation works were inaugurated on August 20, 2010. Instilling faith in the employees, all the benefits amounting to Rs 7.5 crore owing to them were distributed on the same day. Prabhaharan, the company executive, said they had to dismantle the machine No 1 as its platform was damaged in the flood waters of the Kallada. It cost a lot of civil work. Now, the operating system has completely been computerised. Instead of the oil pier boiler, new boiler, in which coal and firewood used as fuel will be installed, he said.
Old damaged paper and pulp will be used as raw material. This will help avoid pollution; he told reporters who visited the mill.
Nelson Sebastian, one of the directors of the company, said that in the initial stage, 150 to 200 people would be employed. “Our dream is to run two out of the four machines. When the two machines were ready for production by the second phase, we will be able to give direct employment to 450 people. There will be indirect employment for 300 people,” he said. He said the initial production target was 100 tonnes craft paper a day. Packing cases and packing materials can be produced in the first phase. In the second phase, newsprint could be produced. The management is planning to run the machine round the clock.
The purified pulp will be imported as mixing of 2 percent of virgin will help produce quality paper.
Officers’ quarters, workers canteen, rest room have been already set up. Out of the 277 acres of mill’s land 117 acres of land is entangled in litigation. But, the 90 acres where the company is located and the 52 acres in the surroundings are in the possession of the company.
He said they planned to set up a paper institute as part of the diversification in future.
Director Board comprising Nelson Sebastian, Archana K Ravindran of Anchal, T K Sundareshan of Darshan Granites, Muhammad Illyas, (KMS) and V K Subhash, and M Venkitaratnam, representatives of Akhula Boards are of the view that the state government’s wholehearted support had made the dream of reopening the mill a reality.
The arrears due to 22 departments were paid in a time-bound manner. Industry Minister Elamaram kareem, Additional Chief Secretary T Balakrishnan helped them remit the arrears through one-time settlement. Local MLA K Raju and CPM leader S Jayamohan cooperated with the directors. Nelson Sebastian, a Congressman and industrialist who represented the Mill Division in the Punalur municipality, had been a witness to the miseries of the employees.
“Eighteen of them committed suicide following financial crisis. I wrote to Kunal to hand over their stakes to revamp it instead of allowing the company to be wounded up. But, Kunal was particular in handing over the mill to someone who has an industrial background” he said.