Date:17/06/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/06/17/stories/2006061704671700.htm

Business

Achuthanandan promises steps to reopen Hindalco unit

Staff Reporter

Smelter unit has remained closed for 34 months

KOCHI: Chief Minister V. S. Achuthanandan has assured a delegation of trade union leaders from Hindalco's (formerly Indal) Alupuram unit that efforts would be continued to reopen the smelter unit that has been closed for 34 months now.

The Save Hindalco Trade Union Samithy delegation met the Chief Minister along with the Ministers for Industry, Electricity and Labour in Thiruvananthapuram last week.

Mr. Achuthanandan assured the delegation that the efforts to reopen the smelter unit would be taken forward.

The smelter unit of Hindalco was closed on August 1, 2003 and workers in the unit were advised to stay at home.

Industries Minister Elamaram Karim assured the Hindalco trade union leaders that a meeting would be convened immediately to decide on what steps needed to be taken to reopen the smelter unit.

Minister for Electricity A. K. Balan too assured the leaders that steps would be taken to reopen the smelter unit.

The Hindalco team comprised trade union leaders cutting across political party affiliations. K. Chandran Pillai and Sebastian Paul, MPs and K. Babu and M. A. Yusuf, MLAs, were part of the team, said a press release from K. N. Gopinath, general convenor of the Trade Union Samithy.

The Kerala Electricity Regulatory Commission had allowed the aluminium company to draw power from the Power Trading Corporation in January 2004. However, the wheeling charge imposed by the Kerala State Electricity Board, said the company management was too high to make the power viable for operating the smelter unit.

The aluminium company was opened in 1943 and had received concession in electricity tariff till 1996.

Hindalco is an Extra High Tension power consumer and paid about Rs.6.5 crores a year in electricity charges until the closure of the smelter unit. The State earned a total of Rs.40 crores through the unit's operation.

The aluminium company that employed about 1,400 people have cut manpower drastically since the smelter unit was closed.