Yamuna floods: Tronica City industries lose over ₹500 crore, seek govt aid

The industrial associations said manufacturing and other activities in Troinca City have come to a halt

Rahul Tyagi has a small manufacturing unit in Ghaziabad’s Tronica City.Since Thursday, when the Alipur embankment was breached by a swollen Yamuna, he had to hire pump for ₹1,500 an hour to pump out water that inundated his manufacturing unit.

AtTronica City industrial area in Loni in Ghaziabad on Monday. (Sakib Ali/HT Photo)

Other industrial units are also in the same boat, both literally and metaphorically, he said.

The industrial associations said manufacturing and other activities in Troinca City have come to a halt due to flooding and it will take another week or 10 days for normalcy to return.

The breach in the Alipur embankment was repaired by Saturday night but not before thousands of cusecs of water inundated nearby villages, residential localities and also caused heavy losses to the small and micro industrial units in Tronica City.

“The water level is decreasing by the day, but each day is piling on my losses. My pending orders have been delayed and my machines and stocks are still in water. I have hired a pump to flush out the water on to roads as there is no drainage network in Troinca City. I will estimate the final loss by Tuesday when I clear the water completely. A majority of factories/units have not started production yet,” Tyagi said.

Another factory owner, Amit Bansal, said about 90% units in the industrial area are micro and small enterprises.

“Many are housed in basements and on the ground floor and have suffered the most. The work for flushing out water has picked up since Sunday. Pumps have also been deployed in the area. The units may take up to a week to fully start activities. My ice units will take up three to four days to start functioning after the plant is made operational. My loss could be anywhere between ₹12-15 lakh, due to the shutdown of the plant and order gone bad besides labour costs during the shutdown period,” Bansal said.

Different factory owners said the area also suffers from bad drainage and improper garbage disposal. Unit owners also face issues such as displacement of labourers, pending orders, stuck consignments of perishable items and incomplete orders, and loss of customer base, among others, due to flooding.

The industrial area was developed by Uttar Pradesh State Industrial Development Authority (UPSIDA) has presence of about 2,300 different units spread over a developed area of about 1,700 acres, said UPSIDA officials.

The office-bearers of Indian Industries’ Association said Tronica City is a “bowl like” area and five pumps have been deployed in the area to flush out water.

“We have requested the district officials to deploy more pumps. We also met senior officials of UPSIDA who came to Tronica City. There are still lot of challenges remaining and we expect the situation to return to normal within the next 15-20 days. We have also asked officials to carry out sanitisation work. We have also asked UPSIDA officials to compensate for losses suffered by the units due to flooding. The estimated loss could range anywhere between ₹500-1,000 crore,” said Rakesh Aneja, chairman of IIA (Ghaziabad chapter).

The officer bearers of the Tronica City Manufacturers’ Association said they have also asked the UPSIDA and district officials to compensate their losses.

“The area has paper, electronics and other type of units. For the past six days, the units have remained shut and there is no electricity. We asked the officials to declare the situation a calamity and compensate losses suffered by units. This could be about ₹500 crore or more and will be correctly ascertained once units open again. Hundreds of unit owners have now deployed pumps to flush out water,” said Surya Kant Singh, vice-president, Tronica City Manufacturers’ Association.

The officials of UPSIDA said their CEO Mayur Maheshwari visited Tronica City on Monday and met industrial associations and also held meetings with district officials later.

“The CEO had directed to install at least 25 pumps to drain out water by Monday night. Furthermore, the compensation issues will be decided by the district administration officials. We are also trying to restart two electricity substations in the area. They will resume work as soon as the area is dry,” said Sharmila Patel, project officer, UPSIDA.

Srinath Paswan, deputy commissioner of Ghaziabad, district industries department, said, “We will send out teams for inspection on Tuesday to Tronica City for assessment of losses. This report will then be sent to the state government for further action. Restoration of electricity and draining out water is taken up on priority at present.”