india

Updated: Apr 29, 2020 18:59 IST

The Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), one of the prominent public sector undertakings (PSU) in Uttarakhand resumed its operations on Wednesday after about a month amid the lockdown, officials said.

The development came a day after chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat held a meeting with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to discuss the revival of Industrial activities in the state.

The two units of BHEL including Heavy Electrical Equipment Plant (HEEP) and Central Foundry Forge Plant (CFFP) had received permission from the Haridwar district magistrate C Ravishankar on Monday to resume operations.

Operations resumed with less than half the total workforce in adherence to the government guidelines amid Covid--19 pandemic.

Employees who have been called for duty will work on two shifts so that social distancing norms are strictly followed.

BHEL manufactures gas turbines, turbo generators, condensers and related auxiliary while its CCFP plant primarily makes large size castings, forging of steel alloys and super critical grade steel.

According to BHEL officials both the factory units, workplace, administrative blocks and equipment were thoroughly sanitized before the operations resumed.

Sanjay Gulati, executive director of BHEL’s Heavy Electricals Equipment Plant (HEEP), Ranipur said that as per the guidelines of Central government and the district administration, BHEL has opened its twin plants.

Gulati said, “Through indigenously developed portable electrostatic disinfection machine, the whole BHEL township including hospitals, factories, guest houses, administrative blocks, parks and roads are also being disinfected on a regular basis.”

Earlier on Tuesday, CM Rawat held a meeting with CII and other state industrialists to discuss the measures for economic activities and industrial operations in the state which have been largely affected by the lockdown caused by the pandemic.

Rawat said, “The state is gradually resuming the industrial activities for revival of the economy. Under the initiative, we have started a single-window system to give permission to industries and factories to resume operations. Since April 20, we have given permission to about 1,171 industries to resume operations mainly in Haridwar and Rudrapur which host major industrial areas of the state which together comprise about 1000 factories.”

The CM had also said that at least 1,884 factories related to pharmaceutical and food processing sectors were already operational in the state. Bigger units like ITC, HUL, Nestle and others have already resumed their production.

“Those from the automobile industry like Mahindra & Mahindra, Ashok Leyland and Tata Motors are soon going to start their production,” Rawat had said.