The industrial town of Lalru, which flourished in the early 1990s and houses about 32 medium and large-scale units, is struggling for want of adequate infrastructure. | |
| The town provides employment to about 15,000 workers, 9,000 of whom stay there with their families. Only one ESI dispensary caters to the entire workforce and their dependents. |
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| The nearest hospital is about 35 km away from the town. The enterprenuers in the town say they contribute Rs 1,500,000 every month to the ESI but did not get the quality services in return. |
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| The units are located on the both sides of the National Highway 22 (Ambala-Kalka road). The units came up haphazardly and no urban planning was done in advance by the state government. So there was an absolute lack of civic infrastructure for people working in the units. About 70 per cent of the total workforce is migrants from the other parts of India. |
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| The local property owners charge exorbitant rents for the accommodation. Lalru has a cluster of textile units (Nahar Industries, Rana Polycot, Cheema Spintex and Indian Yarns) and pharma units (Torque, Panacea Bio Tech, Wockhardt). |
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| President of the Lalru Industries Association, M M Verma, told Business Standard that the state exchequer collected about Rs 100 crore annually in the form of taxes, from Lalru. But the problems of the local industry had not been addressed. |
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| The problem of transport union was one of the major concerns for the industry that has been hanging fire. The industry was expecting a roll back of octroi that has been deferred to May 2006. |
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| Verma said the industry was paying Rs 0.90 per unit per hour extra for each unit consumed during the peak load hour. "The four laning of the NH 22 is imperative. Since the units have developed on both sides of the road there is congestion in peak hours and many accidents," he said. |
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