The Hindu Business Line : BHEL Tiruchi small suppliers to set up estate

THE BHEL Small and Medium Industries Association (BHELSIA), a group of 130 ancillaries supplying fabrication services to BHEL, Tiruchi, is building an industrial estate at a cost of Rs 15 crore.

Mr Rajappa Rajkumar, President of the association, expects that the estate will attract investments of about Rs 300 crore. The estate is coming when BHEL is looking for new vendors from the North and the Tiruchi-based ancillaries are eyeing more non-BHEL business.

Mr Rajkumar said that the new industrial estate is being created with an eye on "global market requirements."

According to sources, foreign companies are considering getting fabrication jobs done at Tiruchi and Ansaldo, an Italian power equipment supplier, has already tied up with G B Engineering Enterprises Pvt Ltd. Under the agreement, G B Engineering would do part of the production work for Ansaldo's global customers. BHELSIA is aiming at more such opportunities. It believes that a modern, well-equipped industrial estate will help attract orders in a big way.

Mr Rajkumar told Business Line that land for the industrial estate had been acquired at a cost of Rs 5 crore. Another Rs 10 crore is to be spent for creating infrastructure. He pointed out that the estate, when in full operation, would provide 5,000 jobs. `Trichy Engineering and Technology Cluster' had been formed by BHELSIA as a special purpose company under Section 25 of the Companies Act to make available common facilities to units in the Tiruchi region. The company has submitted a project to the Small Industries Development Corporation (SIDCO). SIDCO is the nodal agency in Tamil Nadu for the Union Government's `cluster development programme.'

The Rs 65-crore project envisages setting up a common testing and calibration centre, a common design centre, common facilities for training and conferences, and facilities for special manufacturing jobs and marketing.

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