Hit by lockdown, Asia’s largest industrial belt, Adityapur Industrial Area is pinning hopes on Tata Motors to revamp its productions. With commercial vehicle major restart of manufacturing operations for its commercial vehicles from its plants located at Jamshedpur, the industrial units of Adityapur are hopeful to give a fillip to its operations. 

The sprawling Adityapur Industrial Area houses 1200 units- including 11 large-scale, 64 small scale and 166 tiny industries and most of these units depend on Tata Motors.

According to information Tata Motors has plans to manufacture about 2500 vehicles at its plant and most of the work order will be given to its ancillaries at Adityapur. “We have started functioning after the first phase of unlocking. Several of the industrial units have started receiving orders. We need support from the Government too to be back on the track, said an official of Adityapur Small Industries Association ( ASIA) .

Tata Motors produces truck and bus chassis of various models by sourcing parts of the vehicles produced in the ancillary units in the Adityapur industrial area. After the lockdown started on March 25, assembling work at the Tata Motors plant came to a standstill. Ancillary units in Adityapur where some 40,000 workers work also stopped to function. However, with the first phase of unlock of the company at Telco has started functioning raising hopes of industrial units.

“The support and cooperation extended by local authorities, state and central Government, our union partners and our dedicated workforce have been instrumental for a smooth restart. We will scale operations in a graded manner as the entire enabling ecosystem of suppliers, vendors, dealers and customers comes up to speed. We are cautiously optimistic and staying agile to cater to an evolving demand,” said Guenter Butschek, CEO & MD, Tata Motors in an official statement.

Meanwhile,  employee re-joining at Tata Motors has been asked to download and use the mandatory ‘Aarogya Setu’ app. Employees are also required to periodically check-in and declare the status of their own, as well as their family’s health on the Tata Motors in-house health track portal. In addition, all employees and visitors entering and exiting the plant premises are also being screened for temperature checks.

"We expect the government to convince the banks to provide around six to eight months' leeway to the ancillaries (to put on hold repayment of interest amount and loan amount) and prevent the banks from further declaring the crisis-hit units as NPA," said Santosh Khetan, Adityapur Small Industries Association (ASIA) functionary and ancillary unit owner.

With several manufacturing units hit by slowdown in production at Tata Motors’ plant here and closure of other major industries like Tayo, revival of the industrial belt remains a major concern.