Dunlop India rolls out first tyre after eight years of closure

Kolkata, Jan 14 (UNI) The first tyre from Dunlop India's Sahaganj factory near here was rolled out today, bringing a new ray of hope after eight years of closure of the factory and ending all speculations about its future.

The Sahagunj factory, which had so far re-employed 473 people from among its 1600-odd previous employees, was presently fit for the production of only "Off The Road" (OTR) tyres and those for the Light Commercial Vehicles (LCV).

As such the first OTR tyre of the size of 1400/20 was ultimately rolled out after nearly four hours of intense intermediatary process during which it had to undergo as many as 16 different tests to prove its road worthiness under extreme condition.

Later speaking to newsmen at the facroty premises, Chairman and Managing Director of Dunlop India Pawan Kumar Ruia, who had purchased the closed plants at Sahagunj and Ambattur in Tamil Nadu at a cost Rs 250 crore in 2005 from the Jumbo Group, said initially the production at the Sahagunj factory would be to the tune of 27 ton per day and it would gradually be taken to the targetted 130 ton capacity per day by March, 2008.

Regarding the turnover and his other future plans to help bring back the past glory of the company, which was once billed as the premier tyre manufacturing unit in the whole of Asia, Mr Ruia said though he was expecting to end the current fiscal with a turnover of only about Rs 55 to 60 crore with a production of around 27 ton per day each in both factories, by March next year he was confident of reaching the turnover target of Rs 1300 crore with the production capacity reaching its ultimate at 130 ton each per day.

Mr Ruia said though the market for the OTR X X X X X X Eds: Here pick up suitably from para five line one of CC 4 "Industry-Bengal- Dunlop-Tyre".

UNI