Recall hope for MAMC staff

Calcutta: Former employees of Durgapur-based Mining & Allied Machinery Corporation (MAMC), which has been shut down for more than two decades, may hope to join the company again with the new owners planning to start production this year.

“We are going to hire all former employees of MAMC, who are still below 65 years of age,” said V.R.S. Natarajan, chairman and managing director of BEML Ltd.

BEML, in a consortium with PSUs Coal India Ltd (CIL) and DVC, had acquired the movable assets of MAMC for Rs 100 crore in June 2010.

When MAMC was wound up in 2001, all its employees had to leave the company through a golden handshake scheme.

“I had discussions with the chairmen of DVC and CIL and have asked them to give MAMC a minimum initial order of Rs 1,000 crore so that the company can be run profitably,” Natarajan said on the sidelines of the ongoing Fourth Asian Mining Congress.

“CIL and DVC are expected to revert back shortly after getting an approval from their respective board of directors,” the BEML chairman added.

With a 48 per cent shareholding, BEML will have management control of MAMC, while DVC and CIL will have a 26 per cent stake each.

However, the shareholders’ agreement is yet to be signed.

“We hope the shareholders’ agreement will be signed before March 31 this year,” Natarajan said.

The consortium has got the 195-acre plot on which the MAMC plant is located on a lease for 90 years. “MAMC’s total land in Durgapur is spread over 400 acres, including staff and officers’ quarters, a hospital, a research and a training institute and so on.

“We have asked the state government to give us 100 acres out of this 400 acres for employee and officers’ quarters. We hope that we shall get this before March-end,” Natarajan said.

Meanwhile, if MAMC gets the orders from DVC and CIL, it shall announce the date of production after March.

MAMC will start with manufacturing spare parts of underground mining machines.

“Even BEML will shift some of its spare parts manufacturing to MAMC plant,” Natarajan said, adding that manufacturing of mining equipment from this plant would take another two to three years.

The Durgapur plant was set up in 1965 with Soviet co-operation to make equipment for various mining industries. The company had diversified into the manufacture, erection and commissioning of bulk material handling plants and coal washeries.

It slipped into the red and was referred to the BIFR in 1992. In 2010, the consortium took over the company by winning an auction with a Rs 100-crore bid

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