Kerala - Kochi   

Engineering cluster to seek Government aid

Staff Reporter

To overcome some teething problems

KOCHI: General Engineering Cluster, Ernakulam, a consortium of engineering units in the district, is likely to seek the help of the State Government even as it faces teething troubles.

Those promoting the cluster are expected to submit a formal memorandum to Industries Minister Elamaram Karim seeking his intervention in helping the cluster overcome some of the problems.

The Minister is learnt to have convened a meeting of officials and promoters of industrial clusters across the State in Kochi on July 13. This will be the first meetings since the new Left Democratic Front Government took charge, and will review the working of the clusters, their progress and the problems faced by them.

Sources said that one of the problems being faced by the engineering cluster is its failure to locate a plot of land for a common facility centre. According to the promoters, the cluster needed at least one acre of land for the purpose.

The cluster promoters had submitted an application to the District Industries Centre (DIC). However, the centre has not been able to locate suitable land for the purpose in any of the industrial estates now in operation.

According to the diagnostic study done before the setting up of the cluster, there are around 1,800 engineering units all over Ernakulam district. They are major employment generators and the formation of a cluster of engineering units was seen as a way forward in taking up new challenges.

Government backing at this stage would be crucial help to the survival and growth of the cluster and the promoters are seeking concessions like preference for these cluster-based units when bidding for works from Government of quasi-government organisations.

Besides, small-scale units used to be given exemption from security deposit in the past and if this concession too can be made available to the engineering cluster units it would be of major advantage to the fledgling venture, sources said.

According to sources, the failure so far of the cluster to identify a suitable plot of land has prevented it from using the funds for cluster development that is being made available by the Union Government. The fund is available for setting up common facility centre. The Union Government provides 70 per cent of the cost; the State Government 20 per cent and the beneficiaries contribute 10 per cent.

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