The Textiles Minister, Dr. K. Sambasiva Rao, recently inaugurated New Bhopal Textile Mills of the National Textile Corporation (NTC) in Bhopal. The mill was taken for revival and modernisation along with BurhanpurTapti Mills in Burhanpur.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Rao observed: “The Government is committed to improve textiles production in the State. Issues of livelihood are integral to the sector as it is the second biggest employment generator in the country after agriculture. I am sure that with the support of the Textiles Ministry, New Bhopal Textile Mills will prove to be a catalyst of industrial development in the region.”
As per the approved scheme of the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR), NTC, in the first phase, replaced 16,848 spindles in 2008 at a cost of Rs. 26.42 crores, and commissioned 25,200 new spindles. This resulted in an increase in monthly production from 1,800 kg to 5,000 kg per day, which meant that even after providing the Modified Voluntary Retirement Scheme (MVRS) to surplus workers, about 380 workers started getting wages everyday. This invariably secured employment for about 600 local families in the long run.
In order to take advantage of the promise shown by New Bhopal Textile Mill, NTC (New Delhi) has approved the second phase of modernisation with a sanction of Rs. 81 crores with which modernised machines would be set up. This would help increase production from the present 5,000 kg to 14,000 kg per day. This would mean that from the current sustenance of 380 workers, the mill will be able to sustain 650 workers every day, and with their getting employment invariably it will support 1,000 local families and secure employment for them for a longer period. This modernisation would lead to a total sale of approximately Rs. 72 crores every year. The mill has obtained ISO Certification.
Under the Nationalisation Act 1974, NTC (Madhya Pradesh) took over seven loss-making mills. Due to old machinery and high cost of labour, the mill was continuously running into losses and in 1992, all these mills got registered under BIFR. Under the approved scheme of BIFR, five of these seven mills were closed as unviable units and the remaining two mills, i.e., New Bhopal Textile Mills in Bhopal and BurhanpurTapti Mills in Burhanpur, were slated for revival and modernisation. As per the scheme all the workers of the five closed mills were given MVRS and the surplus manpower of the remaining two scheduled for revival was also given MVRS benefit and retired.