Click to play videoPune: These days, crank shaft shaping machines at Pune's Prasad Enterprises are gathering dust.
Fifteen years ago, V N Zodge bought these machines with a loan of Rs 53 lakh, to manufacture components for Bajaj Auto.
Today, most of his business is shut because the Akurdi plant of Bajaj has closed down.
Zodge's biggest worry now is to find a way to repay the remaining 26 lakhs of his loan.
"We supply material to Kalyani Forge. From there Bajaj Auto got all the required material. But when they stopped the supply we didn't get material from Kalyanjee's forge April 1 onwards,” said proprietor of Prasad Enterprises V N Zodge.
Like Zodge, about 5,000 auto component makers in Pimpri Chinchwad area are directly or indirectly dependent on the Akurdi plant. Many will now have to look for new takers. Till then business remains stand still.
Workers of Bajaj Auto Limited will continue to get wages even after the shutdown. But the future remains uncertain for many of those workers who work for component vendors, in this area as business will be badly affected.
Zodge has already cut down 70 per cent of his work force. And nearly another 50,000 working in these small-scale industries may have to face the axe.
“Within a day everything came to an end. The condition here is really bad,” said secretary, Pimpri Chinchwad Small Scale Industry Association, Shivaji Sakhare.
Component vendors and the small scale industry association here are now planning to approach Bajaj Auto, to transport their products for use at the Aurangabad plant and save the Pimpri Chinchwad auto component community from losing its oldest buyer.
(With inputs from Netra Agarwal)
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