Industries to reopen soon after CM Soren’s nod for operation in urban areas
JAMSHEDPUR: About a dozen companies based in Jamshedpur, including Tata Motors, are likely to resume operations in the upcoming days after remaining closed for 67 days due to the Covid-19 lockdown after Jharkhand chief minister (CM) Hemant Soren gave a nod for reopening industries in urban areas late on Wednesday night.
A notification to this effect was issued by the state disaster management department secretary Amitabh Kaushal on Wednesday.
“We issued a notification on Wednesday night, clearly stating that industries located in urban areas can also restart operations. They need to comply with Covid-19 guidelines detailed in annexure-2 of the May 17 order issued by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (UMoHA). On May 18, the state government had come out with a notification allowing units in Industrial Areas, SEZ and estates to restart their operations,” Kaushal said on Thursday.
East Singhbhum deputy commissioner (DC) said companies such as Tata Motors, Nuvoco
Cement and others falling under urban area limits under Tata Lease command areas will have no problem now to restart operations. State transport minister Chanpai Soren too had a meeting with the CM and later with Tata Motors in Jamshedpur and announced that companies, including Tata Motors and it’s 1000 ancillaries out of the 1,397 units in Adityapur Industrial Area Development Authority (AIADA), would open within the next few days.
Sources said the automobile giant on Thursday started training and emergency preparedness exercises in its Jamshedpur plant and was likely to restart fullfledged operations and production by Monday. This exercise will continue till Saturday and different departments in the company would start operating in a phased manner.
Tata Motors corporate communication department here, however, refused to comment in the matter despite emails and phone calls.
The state government notification has paved the way for reopening of other city-based companies such as Tata Cummins, Timken, TRF, Tinplate,
ISWP, Tata Bluescope, Nuvoco Cement, TSPDL and others located in Jamshedpur urban area. The companies, however, will have to comply with social distancing rules, wearing masks, sanitizing facilities and follow other Covid-19 protocol guidelines. Sources said companies have asked employees to come by their own vehicles and would then shuttle them to different departments on company buses inside the plants.
“We all have been waiting anxiously for this decision. We thank the state government for taking a pragmatic step to revive the industrial sector which was already down due to recession and then hit further by Covid-19 lockdown. It will also boost the economy and over 1 lakh workers directly or indirectly involved in these companies who were under severe financial crisis,” Inder Agrawal, president, Adityapur Small Industries Association (ASIA) said.
Meanwhile, Singhbhum Chamber of Commerce & Industry general secretary Bharat Vasani wrote to the CM, requesting permission for restarting trading activities in East Singhbhum as well as other districts of Kolhan.