ISWP gears up for commercial production. Picture by Uma Shankar Dubey

Jamshedpur, Dec. 31: Come January 2 and smoke would once again start bellowing from the chimneys of the Indian Steel and Wire Products (ISWP) after a gap of over five years.

Chief minister Arjun Munda and Tata Steel managing director B. Muthuraman would press the buttons of the machine to start commercial production.

The Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) had recently approved the bid of Tata Steel to take over the unit from Ravi Inder Singh, then promoter of ISWP.

Singh had failed to run the company in a proper fashion. He even failed to pay the dues of the workers of the company after it seized production. Even the steel major was not paid its dues for the raw material and electricity that it used to provide to that company. Tata Steel had dues over Rs 20 crore.

Tata Steel’s taking over the closed ISWP is a rare example in the entire state when an ailing unit has been taken over by another reputed industrial unit for its revival.

“Muthuraman would also visit the plant tomorrow afternoon to cut cake and distribute sweet packets among the employees. He could address the employees on this momentous occasion,” the president of the Wire Products Labour Union (WPLU), Rakeshwar Pandey, said.

According to the president of the union, the commercial production would start on January 2 after Munda and Muthuraman visit the unit. “By January 2, we are going to set all things right within the plants of the company so that there is no problem once the commercial production kicks off,” he said.

“The trail production in the two plants of ISWP — wire mill and nut and bolt mill — would take place tomorrow morning,” sources in the Wire Products labour Union said.

According to Pandey, the trial production was supposed to take place today but was deferred to Thursday morning following some technical reasons.

“The exercise would be undertaken and completed before Muthuraman visits the plant,” the WPLU chief said.