Government sets up tool rooms to service MSME sector

The Central government has established 10 state-of-the-art tool rooms and training centres to help meet the tooling needs of manufacturing companies, especially in the MSME sector. These are a key requirement of manufacturers, and are expected to provide a fillip to MSMEs that lack these facilities in-house, says a recent issue of the CII publication, MSME Business.

The Central government is also assisting state governments to set up mini tool rooms on a cost-sharing basis. These tool rooms are highly proficient in tool and die-making technologies and promote precision as well as quality in the development and manufacture of sophisticated tools, dies and moulds.

There are tool rooms supported by the MSME ministry at Hyderabad, Ludhiana, Kolkata, Jalandhar, Nagaur, Ahmedabad, Aurangabad, Indore, Jamshedpur and Bhubaneswar. In addition, there are tool rooms supported by state governments at Lucknow, Bangalore, Delhi, Mysore and Goa.

As such facilities were not enough to meet the growing demand for tooling and training of manpower, the National Manufacturing Competitive- ness Programme - initiated by the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council (NMCC) - sought to engage the private sector to set up mini tool rooms and training centres.

A scheme termed 'Setting up of New Mini Tool Rooms (MTRs) under Public Private Partnership (PPP) Mode' was subsequently introduced. Under the scheme, the government provides funds to meet a part of the project cost, the extent of which would be determined through a competitive bidding process.

The tool rooms and training centres provide production, training and consultancy services in the areas of tool engineering, such as facilities for production of tools, moulds, dies, jigs and fixtures, and providing skilled manpower to industry. These services help industry become more productive and competitive.