Sudha Menon
With over 4,000 industrial units in the large, medium and small sectors dotting its landscape, the sprawling Pimpri-Chinchwad Industrial belt is one of the largest of its kind in this part of the country and certainly boasts of some of the biggest names in the industry. Take a look at the names that it is home to — Tata Engineering, Bajaj Auto, Hindustan Antibiotic, the Finolex group of Industries and a clutch of Swedish companies that made this twin city their home in the mid-sixties including Sandvik Asia and Atlas Copco.
Industrial activity in the region started in 1954 when Hindustan Antibiotics, a public sector pharmaceutical company was established here. That perhaps proved to be the catalyst and the region saw rapid industrialisation over the next few years. The Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation acquiring (MIDC) procured huge tracts of land in this region in 1956 in anticipation of this and it was not long before multinationals like SKF, Phillips came there. The industrial belt was earlier characterised by a concentration of engineering units but over the years there has been a shift with a variety of industries like pharmaceuticals, chemicals, telecommunications and even Information Technology companies now setting up shop there. The industrial belt is also known as the place where large multinationals and small-scale industrial units rub shoulders and share a symbiotic and mutually beneficial relationship.
More than 50 per cent of the small-scale units in the region at one point depended on and grew with the business provided to them by the erstwhile Telco, Bajaj Tempo, Bajaj Auto and others.
While these auto biggies themselves have spent the last few years getting used to the realities of global competition and introduced efficiency in every aspect of their functioning, the trickle down effect has seen the auto ancillaries also adapting to the changes in technology and concepts like Just in Time (JIT), which is the mantra of the auto industry. Take the case of V.R. Coatings.
From a very humble beginning way back in 1985, the company now manufacturers a complete range of pneumatically driven airless spray painting and dispensing equipment and is now an ISO 9001 company employing more than 80 personnel with a turnover of Rs3 crores. Equipment offered by V.R. Coatings are of three categories, namely heavy duty, medium duty and low-pressure paint transfer pumps. While both the auto majors and the ancillary units have witnessed a sustained recession in the last couple of years, the good news is that auto sales are suddenly showing an upward spurt that has revived spirits in this large industrial belt.
But business is not just looking up for the auto companies in the region. Thermax Babcock Wilcox is also suddenly humming with renewed activity. This Thermax group company is now on its way out of a slowdown with a defined focus on innovation and tapping newer markets within the country and abroad.
Thermax Babcock & Wilcox has developed an innovative combustor called Hopper Bottom Atmospheric Fluid Bed Combustor which permits the use of multi fuel, high alkali bio-mass for sustained operation of bio-mass power plants.
The increasing energy demand for industrial set-ups in rural areas and electrification of villages have increased the demand worldwide for bio-mass power plants which use bio-mass as its prime source of fuel for producing energy.
However an efficient, reliable and sustainable operation of these power plants called for right technology because of the seasonal and somewhat unpredictable availability of a particular bio-mass. The Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) has played a pivotal role in developing this area into one of the most progressive industrial belts in the country. Not many know this, but the municipal corporation, one of the richest in the country, has for the last few years quietly been undergoing a transformation into a model community as envisaged by the Earth Summit in 1992. Visitors to this belt are amazed at the progress that this town, with its more glamorous neighbour, Pune city, has made in the last few years. The PCMC has spent the last few years tackling nagging problems like excessive industrial pollution, poor hygiene, poor infrastructure with a grim determination that is now showing results. The sprawling industrial township now has green belts covering almost all the major clusters of industrial units, which has gone a long way in tackling air pollution. At last count the PCMC had planted over one million trees in the region. The PCMC's war against pollution has also meant locking horns with industrial units on a number of occasions where the former were found to be letting out untreated effluents into the river and water bodies in gross violation of pollution control norms.
Their determination has now paid off with most units now toeing the line and treating their waste before discharging it. The PCMC is also currently executing seven schemes involving installation of biodegradable effluent treatment systems across various parts of the township for recycling water. An ambitious hospital waste management programme which got off after an initial resistance from hospitals in the township is now on full steam with the participants pooling in and incinerating harmful hospital waste in a common facility instead of dumping it in open garbage dumps, which had caused spread of disease in this township which has a large migrant population.
``Our focus while planning developmental work within the corporation is to conceive projects which will focus on health and hygiene, especially since pollution levels are high here due to concentration of industry'', says Municipal Commissioner, Mr Anil Diggikar. Which is why the corporation will soon become the only which treats hundred percent of all the sewage before it is let out into water bodies. The corporation currently treats 101mld of the 180-mld sewage produced here and in the next couple of months a new 59 mld plant is being commissioned. "The rest of the 28 mld sewage we plan to treat with natural ways such as nallah parks," says Mr Diggikar. The municipal corporation has been at the forefront of the movement to green urban environment and is now in the midst of a project to educate citizens, especially the young, on our ecological heritage. Paryavaran Sanskar Udyan, a 13-acre park will display four different terrestrial ecosystems and one acquatic ecosystem which will house the typical flora of the state.
In addition, the corporation is also working at developing a large medical herb plantation within one of its green belts.
In addition to all their efforts, the corporation has also leveraged the power of the Internet to the common good. The corporation's home page, www.pcmc.india.org, is a one-stop shop for everything that you need from the organisation. Citizens can visit the homepage for details on various services provided by the corporation, their timings, names of the officer in charge, among other things. The large number of industrial units in the township has fuelled the housing industry that has been on an upward spiral for the last few years, despite a slowdown in industrial activity over the last couple of years. This has seen a simultaneous growth in the services sector in the region and fuelled the growth of educational institutions like colleges, computer and management education institutes. The Institute of Business Management and Research (IBMR), which started off with entrepreneur Asha Pachpande in 1984 is today a full-fledged institute offering computer and management education to students at its facility in Pimpri-Chinchwad.
The institution, which is `partner in education (PIE) with IBM offers students to learn using the hands on method which fosters innovation among other things, says Pachpande who points out that among other things the institute has a lab which houses several pentium-based workstations and IBM AS/400e server.
The institute has also set up another project, the `Institute of International Business and Research (IIBR) which, among other things, teaches the students the necessary skills to compete and lead successfully in the international business environment. The institute also fosters close ties with the industry with which it is in touch constantly and Pachpande feels that this has helped students to get a first hand feel of how business is conducted. "The institute is soon to start modular courses on CRM, e governance, business processes and voice over input to increase the marketability and employment potential of its students," says Pachpande.
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