The BHEL Small and Medium Industries Association (BHELSIA) has planned to host an exhibition in Tiruchi next month to showcase the capabilities of steel fabrication units of the city so as to attract orders in the railways and the defence sectors.
Although the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) units were once famed for their combined capabilities and earned the city the reputation of being the fabrication hub, many of the units turned sick over the past few years, owing to a variety of factors, including over-dependence on the public sector major, BHEL, for orders.
The association has already sought a rehabilitation package from the Centre for the units which are under financial strain and those which have turned non performing assets due to the general recession over the past four years.
“Even as we are working to getting government support for revival of the sick units, we are also trying to get orders for the units. The expo is an attempt to showcase our capabilities and try and win orders from the Railways and the Defence sectors,” said Rajappa Rajkumar, president, BHELSIA, told The Hindu .
Mr. Rajkumar said the MSME’s can make products such as base frames for goods wagons and passenger bogies and even do total body building for bogies. “There is also good scope for manufacturing and supplying products such as armoured vehicles, fire fighting equipment, sprinklers and other products for the Defence sector too,” Mr. Rajkumar observed.
The BHELSIA has already started meeting elected representatives and officials in New Delhi seeking their support. Auditor S. Gurumurthy has agreed to be the patron of the expo.
A BHELSIA delegation met Railway Minister Piyush Goyal recently requesting him to depute officials to study the capability of Tiruchi units and help them in identifying the products which can be supplied to Railways and also arrange for vendor registrations. “We are also interested in signing a long term contract with Railways for developing new products by investing on any special purpose machine as may be required,” Mr. Rajkumar said in a representation to the Minister. Providing an overview of the critical situation faced by the MSME units in Tiruchi, Mr. Rajkumar pointed out there were about 450 units in and around Tiurchi, mainly serving BHEL-Tiruchi. “Because of the expertise developed by these units, Tiruchi is known as one of the best fabrication hubs of South Asia. The units give direct employment to about 20,000 persons and nearly 1.20 lakh people are dependent on the MSME units,” he said.
Till 2012, the total manufacturing capacity of these units was around 3.20 lakh tonnes per annum.
Anticipating huge orders, all these units went for expansion and the manufacturing capacity was increased to seven lakhs tonnes per annum.
But subsequently, drop in order from BHEL has badly affected the MSMEs and many of them were fighting for survival now, he said.
Mr. Rajkumar said that a delegation of BHELSIA has also planned to meet the Defence Minister seeking his support for the expo.
“We are also exploring the feasibility of a floating machining cluster during the expo,” Mr. Rajkumar added.
