Basic facilities elude Kalka Industrial Area

Tribune News Service

Sanjay Bumbroo

Panchkula, January 29

Even as the Haryana Government is inviting industrialists to set up their units in the state and would provide all the facilities, the situation on the ground is totally different as the Industrial Area in Kalka is lacking even basic facilities like roads for the past 23 years.

The Industrial Area in Kalka was created by the Haryana State Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC) in 1983 by carving out 55 plots for small scale industries. However, the area faces lack of basic facilities like roads and street lights, causing problems for the industrialists as well as their workers.

Sudhir Kumar Gupta, general secretary of Kalka Industrialists’ Association, said the first industrial unit was set up in the year 1984. He said the roads were built here about 23 years ago and since then no recarpeting of the roads has been done, let alone the repair work. He said there are no street lights in the area and the workers coming to their duties for the night shift also face problem. There is also a fear of theft in the area due to darkness.

Gupta said there is filth visible everywhere in the Industrial Area as no Municipal Council worker comes for cleaning the area. He said they themselves have to hire sanitation workers to clear the garbage in the area. The area also faces a problem of low water pressure, causing problems for them, he said, adding that they have to seek water tankers from private agencies to fulfil their requirement.

Gupta said the Haryana Government had established the Industrial Area in Kalka on the request of Eicher factory of Parwanoo for setting up small scale units to make its tractor parts. He said in the year 2013, the HSIIDC had handed over the area to the Municipal Council. He said the works being done by the MC in the area can be gauged by the board installed at the entry point, which is not fully visible due to overgrown bushes. As a result, people find it difficult to locate the area.

Advocate Vijay Bansal, president of the Shivalik Vikas Manch, said these industrial units should be shifted to the 300-acre land of the Hindustan Machine Tools (HMT) Factory, which had been closed. He said by shifting the industrial units there, more and more companies would set up their units on the HMT land now owned by the HSIIDC. With the setting up of industrial units, the local youth would get employment, he added.

Executive Officer, Kalka MC, Jarnail Singh, said he was not aware of the problems being faced by the industrialists as he had joined here recently.

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