Maran plays saviour for HCL

The Department of Telecom has come as a saviour for Hindustan Cables Limited (HCL), a sick PSU under the department of Heavy Industries, by agreeing to lobby on its behalf with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited for orders.

"Communications Minister Dayanidhi Maran is extremely positive about helping HCL with orders placed by BSNL for both jelly filled and optical fibre cables," Chairman of Board for Reconstruction of Public Enterprises Prahlad K Basu said.

He said the minister was even open to the idea of BSNL taking over HCL on management contract. "This will be discussed later," Basu added.

HCL makes sophisticated cables and wires for communication, catering to the needs of sectors like telecom, defence and Railways. However, it has been starved of orders and since Feburary 2003 it has not produced either jelly filled cables or optical fibre cables.

The administrative ministry for HCL is in favour of either bringing in a joint venture partner for the company or its sale. For that it is willing to sell it as a complete company or as three seperate units.

HCL has units in Rupnarianpu in West Bengal, Naini in Uttar Pradesh and Hyderabad.

The orders for the company dried up after it failed to supply cables to BSNL even after taking Rs 300 crore in advance.