New Delhi, Jan. 28: The Centre has decided not to divest its stake in the Bokajan factory of the Cement Corporation of India (CCI) because it has been consistently posting profits, unlike most other plants of the public sector unit.
This is the second instance of Delhi retaining its share in an Assam-based PSU after hinting at a selloff. The divestment axe was expected to fall on the Brahmaputra Valley Fertilisers Corporation Ltd in Namrup, too, but the government changed its mind and decided to pump in over Rs 600 crore to revamp it.
Between 1998 and 2003, the CCI unit in Bokajan recorded a profit of Rs 11.27 crore. This is cited as the primary reason for Delhi deciding against divestment.
A senior official in the Union ministry for heavy industries said there was uncertainty over the selloff proposal right from the beginning. ?Representatives of a company that was interested in taking over the profit-making unit were not even allowed to enter the premises.?
Bokajan is in Karbi Anglong district.
Both the Tarun Gogoi government and the Karbi Anglong Autonomous District Council expressed their opposition to the divestment move in writing several months ago.
The CCI has 11 units, of which only three are functioning. All these plants, barring the one in Bokajan, have been up for sale for quite sometime now, but only two bids have been received so far. The Bokajan plant was set up in 1977. Limestone is transported to the unit from the source through an 18-km ropeway.
Though profits have been steady, the CCI management has failed to rectify the shortfall in production. A source attributed it to ?shoddy capacity utilisation?.
The annual output hovered in the region of 1.3 lakh tonnes during the past three years. An internal report cited frequent bandhs, difficulties in appointment of contractors and recurrent floods as the main reasons for the stagnant output graph. Machinery wear and tear and erratic supply of power were also blamed for it.