Dunlop Sees Production At Sahaganj By Mid-April

Dunlop India president M D Shukla has informed the representatives of the CITU union that the management hoped to start commercial production at the Sahaganj unit in mid-April.

Shukla said at least one month was needed to establish the proper infrastructure required for commercial production at the unit which is closed for the past two years.

However, the CITU leaders differ from the Shukla's view on time requirement for setting up infrastructure as the management had reportedly assured them to begin production within a day after re-opening of the factory, slated on March 11.

A representative of the Citu-led Dunlop Workers' Union said, " The management maintains the tradition of denying its assurance. Earlier, it said that a 24-hour time is enough to start production. "

 

It can be recalled that the Dunlop India management had

backed out from its decision to re-open the Sahaganj factory on March 7 when the Citu-led union did not put its signature on the minutes of a January 6 bipartite meeting.

However, it had agreed on Friday to re-open the factory,

following the mediation of the West Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu.

In a meeting with the CITU-affiliated union, Shukla said today that the tyre company will concentrate on 100 per cent industrial items namely OTR (over the roads) and aero products. The company has already bagged an export order of 4,000 tyres from Bangladesh, he said.

Shukla also said the company was expecting an order for steel cord belting from Neivelling Lignite Corporation which was canceled for the delay in re-opening the unit. It will take 10 weeks to import the required inputs for

producing steel belting from a German firm.

He said the company has also ordered critical members including engineers and marketing executives to return to Calcutta immediately.