Old printing machines on their way out in Amritsar

Unable to face the competition, 50 per cent of the entrepreneurs in the city have downed shutters and the remaining ones are making corrugated box-making machines, laminating machines, die punching machines, etc.

Ten years ago, there were 70-80 manufacturers in the city, employing 18,000-20,000 people directly and indirectly.

Moreover, then every day 80-100 printing machines used to roll out of the factories of Amritsar, Rs 40,000 being the price of the cheapest variety.

Industry watchers say though entrepreneurs are to an extent responsible for this because they id not modernise, the government attitude was also not encouraging.

They didn't get any support from the government.

The partner of Suraj Mechanical Engineering Works (one of the prominent players in manufacturing printing machines 10 years ago), Kulwant Singh, said, "The superior quality of offset machines led to the downfall. Even when we try to develop the machine locally, high-quality raw material is not available that time. Moreover, the response from the local market was not encouraging, so we closed operations and went into manufacturing machines like die punching, paper cutting, stitching gold smith machines, etc."

Singh exports these machines to Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Maldives.

Gursharan S Sandhu, partner, Oriental Paper Converting Machinery Corporation, said, "A decade ago, every day 80-100 machines used to roll out of Amritsar. These machines, produced indigenously, had not only made their presence in the domestic market but also South Africa, and West Asia. At that point of time we used to export 70-80 machines."

Similarly, Sond Engineering Works has ventured into making die punching machines, paper cutting machines, etc.