The Union government has finally decided to close down Tungabhadra Steel Products Limited at Hosapete in Ballari district. The ISO 9001 company, located on a sprawling 90-acre land in the heart of Hosapete, which manufactured and supplied quality crest gates, sluices and canal gates for several dams in the country, was in deep financial crisis for the last several years. In fact, it had become defunct without any work orders. The decision to wind up the company was cleared by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs in 2015 and the Cabinet took the decision on Wednesday.
Enquiries revealed that 72 of the total 350 employees, who were on the rolls in December 2015, accepted the voluntary retirement scheme and got their dues settled.
The company, which began as a workshop manufacturing gates and hoists required for spillways, sluices and canal gates of the Tungabhadra Dam in 1948, was converted into a public sector enterprise in 1960, with equity participation from the Union government (79 %) and the governments of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh (nine per cent and 12 %, respectively). Later, the company began taking orders for manufacturing crest gates, hoists, among other things, for various dams in the country and also abroad.
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According to retired employees, the company was doing well till 1992.
As per the Cabinet decision, the land and machinery are to be transferred to the State government.