Thursday, August 25 2005 19:26 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Defending the sale of land of the sick National Textile Corporation (NTC), Government today (Aug 25, 2005) said several thousands of people will get assured employment after modernisation of potentially viable mills out of the sale proceeds.

In his statement to the calling attention notice moved by V Narayanswamy, Textiles Minister Shankersinh Vaghela said Government was committed to carry out capital restructuring of NTC costing nearly Rs 6,000 crore.

Stating that government has taken decisive and effective steps for saving the NTC, a sick company, from liquidation, Vaghela said due to the Centre's initiative, the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) has also approved rehabilitation schemes for the NTC companies costing about Rs 3,900 crore.

As per the rehabilitation scheme, 66 unviable mills are to be closed and 53 potentially viable mills are to be revived with the sale proceeds of surplus assets.

"After un-encumbering the assets, NTC started the process of land sale through an open and transparent mechanism", the Minister said adding the sale process, however, has been affected due to delay in permission by state governments like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and U.P.

The Minister said bulk of resources for rehabilitation are to be generated through sale of NTC land in Mumbai.

The Government of Maharashtra has amended Development Control Regulations for Greater Mumbai, which facilitated sale of the NTC mill land in the mega polis for development of crucial civil infrastructure, he said

Vaghela said out of 25 NTC mills in Mumbai, 39.42 acres of surplus land with five NTC mills would be handed over to Maharashtra Housing Development Authority and Brihan Mumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

While five NTC mills had no surplus land, there was 137.04 acres of surplus land with remaining 15 mills in Mumbai.

Vaghela said NTC has concluded sale of 5 properties for Rs 2021 crore and the money from this would be used to return the amount borrowed from the market to fund Voluntary Retirement Scheme in NTC mills and also to meet the cost of modernisation.

Apart from this, NTC has advanced amounts for meeting cash losses, which also need to be reimbursed, he said.

The Minister said in accordance with the scheme finalised by BIFR, the NTC, on May 2003, filed application before the Commissioner, BMC, who is the competent authority on regulations governing the sale of Textile Mills land.

Vaghela said instead of giving permission for sale of land, the BMC constituted a sub-committee to advise in the matter.

The sub-committee, in its report, suggested further modification in the Development Control Regulations.

The Government of Maharashtra has, however, not acted upon the recommendations for further modification of the Development Control Regulations, the Minister said.