The Hindu Business Line : Travancore Rayons revival stalled

Kochi, Oct. 17 The revival of the sick Travancore Rayons Ltd (TRL) at nearby Perumbavoor appears to have been stalled following some allegations raised by certain sections of the media that the company was being sold out at a throw away price to the promoters.

Refuting the allegations the Industry Minister, Mr Elamaram Kareem, had earlier said that the unit would be given on lease to the promoters, whose revival package was accepted by the Cabinet and accordingly a Government order was passed.When contacted, sources in the Industry Minister’s office told Business Line that certain minor issues had to be sorted out soon. Discussions would be held with the promoters, the Kochi-based Elenjical Group, before signing the agreement, they said.

Meanwhile, Mr Joseph Varghese, Managing Director of the group, said that he had already written a letter to the Chief Minister requesting him to “run an advertisement in the newspapers calling for bidders and if there is a lowest bidder, then we would be happy to withdraw”.

Mr Joseph Varghese said: “We have already arrived at an agreement with the banks and financial institutions to settle all the outstanding dues by paying Rs 5 crore, apart from reaching an agreement with the trade unions”.

Ready for revival

The promoters are ready to go ahead with the revival of the company as per the earlier agreement that the Government had entered into with Coimbatore-based group, minus the demand for sales tax concessions and the allotment of 300 acres of forestland.

The promoters had already paid Rs 50 lakh to the Kerala State Industrial Development, he said.

Revival Package

He said that as per the company’s revival package it would invest Rs 250 crore in three years.

It would initially start operations of the plants manufacturing cellophane and pulp. Manufacturing of rayons would be taken up in the second stage. Besides, a cluster of units would come up in the premises to be set up by interested parties.

Another official source pointed that IDBI had advertised in a major national English daily and a Malayalam daily calling for promoters to revive the unit in the year 2000.

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