In an effort to help the tiny, small and medium foundries to improve their technology and hone up the skill levels of their workers, a project at an outlay of Rs 9 crore covering Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu and Belgaum in Karnataka with financial assistance from the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) is on the anvil.

While the project in Coimbatore, to be implemented through Coimbatore Industrial Infrastructure Association (Coindia), would receive an assistance of about Rs 6 crore, the Belgaum project, to be executed with the involvement of Belgaum Foundry Cluster, would get the balance aid.

Speaking to Business Line , Mr C.R. Swaminathan, President, Coindia, said out of about 600 foundries in Coimbatore, around 400-500 foundries come under the eligible categories. Of this, initially about 30-50 foundries would be chosen under the programme which would have to share about 25-30 per cent of the project expenses relating to them. The idea was to cover 200-300 foundries in the city over a period of three years under the programme.

He said if the foundries' rejection rate was within 3-4 per cent and the yield was around 40-55 per cent, then their working was considered as good.

Most of the foundries were started by entrepreneurs who had rich practical skill but did not have theoretical knowledge and the project would help fill up that void. At present, the rejection levels were higher than the optimum level.

Explaining the beneficial impact of the programme, he said it was aimed at reducing the rejection rate of the castings manufactured by the foundries by improving quality and to reduce the power consumption and improve the skill level of the workers.

He expected a 10-15 per cent overall improvement in all these areas once the project is completed.

Mr Swaminathan said Coindia's selection of foundries would be need based and would ask the applicants to submit their balance sheets for three years while screening. The idea was to help foundries falling within the three eligible categories as big foundries would be in a position to source better technology themselves.

He said Coindia had suggested that the expertise of professionals in countries such as Germany could be tapped for skill development. While the Government or UNIDO could bear the financial cost of foreign experts, the local hospitality expenses could be met by Coindia.

Mr Swaminathan said the project, financed by UNIDO, was being implemented in association with the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion of GoI, Institute of Indian Foundrymen , Quality Council of India and National Productivity Council . A formal launch of the project is slated for tomorrow at Coimbatore.

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