Tool rooms to revive SMEs in Haryana

The Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) has, in principle, agreed to establish two tool rooms in Haryana at a total outlay of Rs 300 crore. These will come up at Rohtak and Saha (in Ambala district).

Talking to Business Standard, Principal Secretary, Department of Industries and Commerce of Haryana, Y S Malik, informed that this was the maiden approval from the central government for tool rooms in the state and it may turn around the industrial landscape of the state.

A tool room provides tools, moulds and dies, which play an importatant role in several sectors of manufacturing.

The small entreprenuers have a fund constraint for investment in research and development. The tool rooms would help them to innovate and design at a minimum investment.

Sectors such as automobiles, light engineering, agricultural implements and footwear will be the major beneficiaries. The tool rooms provide strategic services like prototyping, precision machine-making and 3-D imaging.

Malik added that the immediate beneficiaries will be fastener cluster ( screws, nuts and bolts) in Rohtak, which has a turn over of approximately 2000 crores. Similarly, the Ambala scientific instruments will also get a boost as designing services will improve the finesse of products.

The two tool rooms will have an outlay of Rs 300 crores. HSIIDC (Haryana State Infrastructure and Industrial Corporation) has already earmarked 15 acres in Rohtak and 10 acres in Saha. The state government had requested for two tool rooms in January this year.

Incidentally, these are the first such facilities in Haryana. Punjab already has two tool rooms in Jalandhar and Ludhiana. The department of industries played a pro-active role in offering the land free of cost, he added.

Most importantly, the time to produce important prototypes will reduce almost by half. This parameter, known generally, as ' turn over time' is a critical factor for competitiveness. These centres will be harbingers of technology as they will act as technology showcase centres and are expected to promote small and micro enterprises to absorb the emerging technologies, said Mailk.

The small entrepreneurs have been using the age-old techniques for years and have lost their competitive edge in India and also international market due to the lack of technology upgradation. The setting up of tool rooms would help them to regain the glorious past performance.