The Heavy Industries Ministry will move the Cabinet with a proposal to shut down six sick central public sector undertakings, including HMT Watches.

“We will spend over ₹1,000 crore just for once, but the burden will end for ever,” Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Minister Anand Geete said in a press conference. The companies are: HMT Watches, HMT Barings, HMT Chinar Watch, Hindustan Photo Films, Hindustan Cables and Tungbhadra Steel.

The Ministry plans to spend ₹1,080 crore towards one-time settlement through a voluntary retirement scheme for workers. The six companies have around 3,600 workers.

HMT Watches, which is a subsidiary of HMT Ltd, has already submitted a voluntary retirement/voluntary separation scheme to the Government for downsizing its manpower. At present, over 1,000 people are employed with the company and its annual wage bill is around ₹45 crore. The company is running losses since the past 15 years and is working with budgetary support from the Government.

After the closures, the Ministry would consider sale of assets to private companies, said Geete. Ministry officials said efforts were on to monetise vacant land available with 11 sick PSUs, which have an estimated 8,000 acres.

These six are out of the 32 PSUs under the Heavy Industries Department. Of these, five – NEPA, HMT Machine Tools, Nagaland Papers & Pull, HEC and Triveni Structurals – are being revived. Scooters India, another State-run company that was in red, had also started making profits, which is why the plan for its strategic sale had been put off, added the minister.

Listing the achievements of his Ministry, Geete said the plan for an ultra mega solar power park is on track. The proposal is to set up a 4,000-MW project with 1,000 MW in the first phase.

The estimated cost of the project is ₹7,950 crore and it will be set up by a joint venture led by State-run Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd.

On the automobile sector, Geete said a proposal for electric vehicle scheme has been finalised.

This envisages the potential demand of 6-7 million hybrid/electric vehicles across segments by 2020. This would yield in fuel saving worth ₹60,000 crore. The project needs an investment of ₹14,000 crore, which will generate 2.5-3 lakh jobs.

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