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Government begins selling Mumbai's textile mills
Wednesday, 17 September 2003, 19:30 IST
MUMBAI: Mumbai's mill lands are changing hands, with the biggest mill-owner, the Indian government, taking the first steps to retrench workers and sell off land.
The National Textile Corporation (NTC), which owns 25 mills, is shutting down 12 and selling off the land on which they are located, according to sources here.
While some of the proceeds from the sale of land would be used to pay compensation to more than 10,000 workers employed by the mills, the rest would be used to revive seven mills that are not being shut down.
The process began during the last weekend when it put out notices to workers at several mills saying they were being retrenched.
The central textile ministry had decided nearly four years ago to shut down the 12 mills because they were considered unviable. Most of them were burdened by a huge workforce and plant and machinery almost a century old, according to state government officials here.
A sum of 
5 billion has been earmarked for paying compensation to the workers who stand to lose their jobs.
Most of them would lose their homes as well, as they have been residents of the 'chawls', or tenements, provided by the mill managements to the employees.
Trade unions have already warned that the sum of 350,000 to Rs500,000 payable to each worker is too little and threatened protests.
All the 12 mills are located in central Mumbai at Dadar, Worli, Lower Parel, Byculla and Kalachowkie, where land prices are on the upswing.
The Maharashtra government and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation are pressing the NTC to share a part of the land released for sale with them.
While the Maharashtra government wants a third of the mill land to construct public housing, the BMC is keen on setting up civic infrastructure on the other third while allowing NTC to commercially exploit the rest.
The NTC is, however, keen on commercial exploitation of the land in its entirety.
V.K. Tripathi, the NTC's managing director, has been quoted as saying that commercial exploitation of land would help generate jobs in the area.
"Where was the concern for public interest when private mills were allowed to develop their land?" Tripathi is quoted as saying.
Environmental groups had earlier objected to NTC's plans and their objections could become more vociferous in the coming days.
Over the years, a number of private mills were allowed to sell part of their land in order to modernize their operations.
However, practically, most private mills have given way to swanky offices and shopping malls on land that was once considered to be the heart of Mumbai's culture.
Central Mumbai developed as the Indian equivalent of Manchester in the mid-19th century with several mills setting up shop.
But rising cost of operations and government restrictions on modernization of the industry since independence resulted in most of the mills going sick.
The crunch came in the early 1980s when firebrand trade unionist Datta Samant led a prolonged textile strike seeking higher wages for workers.
The mills simply shut shop instead. Later in the decade, the Indian government nationalized most of the mills and brought them under the ambit of NTC.
Source: IANS
5 billion has been earmarked for paying compensation to the workers who stand to lose their jobs.
Most of them would lose their homes as well, as they have been residents of the 'chawls', or tenements, provided by the mill managements to the employees.
Trade unions have already warned that the sum of 350,000 to Rs500,000 payable to each worker is too little and threatened protests.
All the 12 mills are located in central Mumbai at Dadar, Worli, Lower Parel, Byculla and Kalachowkie, where land prices are on the upswing.
The Maharashtra government and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation are pressing the NTC to share a part of the land released for sale with them.
While the Maharashtra government wants a third of the mill land to construct public housing, the BMC is keen on setting up civic infrastructure on the other third while allowing NTC to commercially exploit the rest.
The NTC is, however, keen on commercial exploitation of the land in its entirety.
V.K. Tripathi, the NTC's managing director, has been quoted as saying that commercial exploitation of land would help generate jobs in the area.
"Where was the concern for public interest when private mills were allowed to develop their land?" Tripathi is quoted as saying.
Environmental groups had earlier objected to NTC's plans and their objections could become more vociferous in the coming days.
Over the years, a number of private mills were allowed to sell part of their land in order to modernize their operations.
However, practically, most private mills have given way to swanky offices and shopping malls on land that was once considered to be the heart of Mumbai's culture.
Central Mumbai developed as the Indian equivalent of Manchester in the mid-19th century with several mills setting up shop.
But rising cost of operations and government restrictions on modernization of the industry since independence resulted in most of the mills going sick.
The crunch came in the early 1980s when firebrand trade unionist Datta Samant led a prolonged textile strike seeking higher wages for workers.
The mills simply shut shop instead. Later in the decade, the Indian government nationalized most of the mills and brought them under the ambit of NTC.
Source: IANS