MANISH GUPTA
Ranchi, Sept 14: State-run firm Heavy Engineering Corporation Ltd (HEC) has floated a tender to evaluate its properties including land and buildings giving rise to speculations that the government is doing the exercise to shut the company and sell its assets.
The city-based capital equipment maker’s open tender, e-published on Wednesday on the Indian government’s Central Public Procurement Portal, defines the work as ‘Valuation of specified premises including land parcels located in HEC Estate’.
“There cannot be any other reason for this valuation but to finally sell off the company. The Modi government is decided that it will not help revive HEC,” Hatia Kamgaar Union Vice President Laldeo Singh told lagatar24.com when contacted over the phone.
Once a leading supplier of capital equipment in India for steel, mining, railways, power, defense, space research, nuclear and strategic sectors, the HEC spread over an area of about 5,000 acres in the heart of the state capital is running in losses since 2014-15.
Several attempts have been made in the past by local politicians to infuse new capital and modernise HEC, set up in 1958, for the current times, but to no avail. From more than 20,000 workers during its heydays, it now has about 2,700 employees.
“There are about 1,500 contract workers and about 1,200 permanent workers, officers and supervisors. About 100 engineers resigned in the last six months as officers have not been paid for nine months and the salary of workers is pending for eight months.
“Even the state government is interested more in the return of land than our plight. In the last fortnight, three contract workers died due to lack of proper medical treatment as ESI hospital denied referring them to higher centres,” said Singh, who retired in 2014.
The tender has listed down 32 premises covering a wide range of buildings and land parcels from offices, guest houses, community halls, transformer rooms, pump house, godowns, schools, colleges, hostels, canteens, health centres, shops, market complex and the administrative buildings of Foundry Forge Plant (FFP), Heavy Machine Building Plant (HMBP) and Heavy Machine Tools Plant (HMTP).
A rough calculation of the land area being evaluated shows that the company is doing a comprehensive evaluation of most of its land and buildings. The 32nd premises listed in the tender alone accounts for an open space of 17.65 crore square feet (or 4,052 acres).
Sources inform that the company may now float another tender for the evaluation of its plants, machinery and other assets. Surely, this does not seem to be a routine exercise.