While most industries resumed operations on Wednesday in Chennai and surrounding regions, the MSME sector and companies which were under water continued to stay away from work.
Many industries operated with 50% workforce as workers in flood-affected areas could not commute to work. Factories which has dormitories within their premises saw full attendance on the shop floors on Wednesday, December 6, 2023.
The North phase of the Ambattur Industrial Estate continued to float in water. “The North phase has three sectors. Water is slowly receding in sector one while the other two sectors are still flooded,” G. Aravind, president, Ambattur Industrial Estate Manufacturer’s Association, said. The same was the situation at the Villivakam Industrial Estate. Bakul Patel, president of SIDCO Industrial Estate Villivakam Manufacturers Association, said, “The water is still there and has seeped into a few units here.”
S. Gajraj, president of Thirumazhisai Industrial Estate, said, “Water continues to remain at the industrial estate. There is no solution to discharge the water outside.” Most units at this industrial estate provide components to automobile majors across the country.
On behalf of all the MSMEs that have been impacted due to torrential rains and Cyclone Michaung, the Tamil Nadu Small and Tiny Industries Association on Wednesday said that it would take at least a year for the small and micro industries to recover. Noting that the losses incurred by the MSME sector would run into several crores, the association requested Chief Minister M.K.Stalin to provide appropriate assistance. “Orders have been pending, banks will not give us extra time to repay the money that we have borrowed. We faced the same situation during 2015 floods and many units wound up then. So we request the government to help us,” said the proprietor of a MSME unit.
Automobile firms like Hyundai Motor India resumed operations on Wednesday. Hyundai Motor India also said that it has put-in-place an emergency road assistance team and will offer 50% discount on depreciation amount on insurance claims of cyclone-affected vehicles. Also, the company’s service network has been put on a high state of preparedness to attend to an expected higher influx of vehicles.
The Tamil Nadu Petroproducts Limited on Wednesday informed the stock exchange that its plant premises at Manali has been flooded and accordingly it has shut its LAB, HCD and PO manufacturing facilities down, effective December 4, 2023.
Manali Petrochemicals Limited said that its plant at Manali has been flooded. The company said: “We have shut our Plant 1 and Plant 2 manufacturing facilities down at Manali, effective December 4, 2023. We are taking necessary measures in coordination with relevant team/authorities to bring the situation to normal and resume the operations in a phased manner, subject to receding of water level, resumption of normalcy in power supply, material movements, etc. At this juncture, we are unable to quantify the impact of this disruption.”
TTK Healthcare Limited said that the company’s manufacturing facility for Ortho Implants situated at Ambattur, was totally flooded and waterlogged and the production activities have been disrupted from December 5. The Company is assessing the situation and simultaneously undertaking all the requisite actions like draining water from the facility, to resume the operations.
