Lease of mills in Jaspur and Kashipur to be extended

"The proposal is now being sent to the board headed by the Chief Secretary S K Das for final approval," official sources said here today.

The proposal was being mooted by Alps Industries, which was given the two sick mills on lease rental for a period of ten years by SIDCUL, a state government nodal agency for industrial development in the state.

The two mills were given to the Alps Industries, which set up a textile mill at Haridwar in 2005, to make it operational. When contacted, a top government official confirmed the move but remain evasive on whether the Board would finally approve the proposal.

"The Board will certainly study all the clauses under which the two mills were given to the Alps Industries," the official said.

Forwarding the proposal to SIDCUL, the Alps Industries has expressed its readiness to modernise machines of the two mills provided the lease can be extended for a period of five years. Kashipur spinning mill has the capacity of 50,000 spindles, while Jaspur's capacity is of 25000 spindles.

The Uttarakhand government took over Jaspur and Kashipur spinning mills from Uttar Pradesh State Textile Corporation (UPSTC) at a time when the two mills were declared sick. The mills remained closed for several years.

The Uttar Pradesh government had referred the cases related to the two mills to Board of Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR). With request from the Uttarakhand government, BIFR agreed to handover the two mills to the hill state for the revival and asked the government to clear the workers' dues.

The SIDCUL, after taking over the two mills from UPSTC, initiated steps for the revival of these mills. Later, SIDCUL invited expression of interests (EOIs) from private parties and subsequently gave them on lease to Alps Industries.