It146;s all about land at Heavy Engineering Corp Ltd

Sunil Singh, a resident of Adarshnagar in Ranchi, has a three-room house with a kitchen garden. He is among 15,000 residents of Adarshnagar ...

Sunil Singh, a resident of Adarshnagar in Ranchi, has a three-room house with a kitchen garden. He is among 15,000 residents of Adarshnagar 8212; a colony with 1,200 homes, two schools, three temples and a 250-shop J.P. Market. But on paper, the residents of Adarshnagar are landless. There8217;s an uneasy calm as politicians craft a bitter battle over ownership of land.

Land, 7,199.53 acres of it, lies at the heart of Heavy Engineering Corporation Ltd8217;s HEC future. There8217;s not much else to talk about at this moribund manufacturer and supplier of capital equipment, machine tools and spares for core sector industries.

Set up as the 8220;mother of all industries8221; in 1958, HEC has been a sick company since 1992. Its finances are in a mess. For the year-ending March 2001, the latest data available, the company showed net losses of Rs 172 crore on sales of Rs 157.51 crore.

HEC8217;s net worth is completed eroded 8212; and has touched 8212; Rs 883.15 crore. The company8217;s accumulated losses are at a staggering 8212; Rs 1,341.68 crore.

As the planned conversion of the company8217;s assets and resources for its 8216;rehabilitation8217; did not take place, the Board for Industrial Financial Reconstruction BIFR directed HEC to close operations. But the company8217;s 3,737-strong workforce continue to attend work. HEC CMD Gyan Praksah Pandey Pandey, it is learnt, told his colleagues that a revival plan was being chalked out.

And that brings us back to land. In February 2003, HEC appointed Thakur Vaidyanath Aiyar and Co to survey its 8216;unutilised land8217; and suggest ways to make capital out of it.

HEC8217;s three plants 8212; and a township with 14,000 houses, along with a stadium and a hospital 8212; were set up over 2,312.15 acres and dedicated to the nation by Jawaharlal Nehru in 1964. The remaining 4,887.38 acres were unutilsed.

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In its report, Aiyar and co said that HEC had Rs 1,575.80 crore worth of assets land and buildings. 8216;8216;In order to obtain the best price of land, it is proposed to dispose off land in three phases8217;8217;, suggested the valuers. But since the Heavy Industries ministry and the state government had not given nod to this recommendation, HEC was unable to do anything about it.

That8217;s cold comfort for the likes of Singh, who are now fighting to retain what has been deemed 8216;surplus land8217; in possession of HEC be returned to its original owners, or the tribals. It has been a violent struggle 8212; three deaths were reported last year when the tribals and residents of Adarshnagar fought a pitched battle. Things have been quiet since then. HEC8217;s six-page report on its assets does not mention a word about the land under dispute. As the future of the company remains in suspended animation, the battle over land will only intensify.