Govt planning to privatise Heavy Engineering Corporation Ltd: Reports

Image Courtesy: hecltd.com

New Delhi: Government is planning privatisation of loss-making Ranchi-based public sector firm Heavy Engineering Corporation Ltd (HEC), as per media reports.

According to reports in Hindi Daily Prabhat Khabar, Ranchi MP Ramtahal Choudhary after a meeting with Union heavy industries minister Anant Gangaram Geete said that the government in its next cabinet meeting may bring out a proposal to run HEC in public private partnership (PPP) mode.

HEC is one of the leading suppliers of capital equipment in India for steel, mining, railways, power, defence, space research, nuclear and strategic sectors.

Choudhary also discussed the issues related to payment of arrears of HEC workers pending from 1997 to 2006 with Geete with the latter assuring that the issue will be resolved, reports said.

Declared sick in 1992, the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction in 2005 ordered had closure of HEC.

But in 2006-07  HEC recorded its first profit of Rs 2.86 crore, followed by Rs 4 crore in 2007-08, Rs 18.37 crore in 2008-09 and Rs 26.93 crore in 2009-10.

HEC in January this year said that it will soon kickstart its Rs 1,240-crore turnaround capex plan that is aimed at revitalising the PSU and quadruple its topline to over Rs 1,600 crore in the next five years.

The modernisation and expansion plan will be funded by a mix of internal resources raised through excess land monetisation and debt, the company said.