HL: Colourchem may move from Thane

Devendra T Goregaonkar

If the employees are to be believed, Colourchem, one of the major industries in Thane, has decided to wind up from the city. As some employees have already started applying for the Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS), the others fear that the company may shift to another city thus rendering them jobless.
A senior worker currently working with the company, said, "If it turns out to be true, this will be the second company from the area to wrap up its business in just one year." Last year, Bayer had shut its company in Thane.
With the presence of several major companies such as Colourchem, Voltas, Bayer, Nicholas Piraml, Phillips and more, Thane has always been known as one of the biggest industrial zones in Maharashtra. So far, more than 80% of the industries in the area have pulled the shutters down paving way for huge building complexes on the land occupied by them.
Fearing something on similar lines, former mayor and MLA Rajan Vichare, said, "If a company plans to wind up its business, it is their primary duty to return the land occupied by the company to the farmers as they are the true owners of the land. Or else, they should run the company. All the companies had purchased the land from farmers at low rates. Instead of providing employment to them, the companies which left sold the plots to developers who constructed huge building complexes on the land plots." Vichare alleged that during his tenure as a mayor, he did not allow any company to transfer the industrial area allotted to them to a residential one. "The matter may be taken to the state government," he added.
g_devendra@dnaindia.net