West Bengal's Industrial Heartland Fades as Historic Factories Shut Gates

Today, the area hosts a number of closed gates of industries having shut down.

Steel, engineering, and allied industries grew around coal and rail links; large plants and ancillary factories created dense industrial townships and skilled labour markets.

However, technological obsolescence and ownership changes undermined competitiveness; many older mills and factories could not modernise, passing through difficult transitions and closures.

Nationalisation and restructuring, too, altered the industrial map; non‑coking coal was nationalised in the 1970s, and major steel companies such as the Indian Iron and Steel Company (IISCO) were taken over and later integrated into SAIL, changing local employment patterns.

Mining pattern shifts -- mainly from underground to large‑scale open‑cast operations -- and the abandonment of less‑viable mines reduced local employment and led to "ghost town" effects in some settlements.

Coal production continues under public companies, some steel and heavy engineering activity remains, but is more consolidated and capital‑intensive.

Among the closed gates with wild grass growing underneath is that of the Burnpur unit of the Burn Standard Company Limited (BSCL).

The Union Cabinet approved its closure in 2018 after its revival was found unviable due to more than a decade of continuous losses, poor physical and financial performance, and heavy dependence on government support.

The closure was intended to stop draining public funds and redirect resources to other developmental work.

A one-time grant of Rs 417.10 crore towards severance package and for clearing the current liabilities of the company was also provided in addition to writing off an outstanding loan of Rs 35 crore given to the company by the Ministry of Railways.

This helped 508 employees of BSCL benefit from Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS).

It was the taking over by the Railways that Asish Bagh, 61, once a crane operator at BSCL, questioned.

"Burn Standard Company Limited was associated with the construction of several iconic structures and civic facilities, including the Howrah Bridge, Dakshineswar Kali Temple, underground hume pipes; even the outer shells of cannon balls and later, the Brahmos casing," he said, adding, "Even railway wagons were made in our factories."

Bagh was a second-generation employee in the company after the death of his father in 1984, who had served there for nearly four decades.

After BSCL was taken over from the Department of Heavy Industries in 2010 during the term of Mamata Banerjee as the Union Railways Minister, the workers had no identification associated with the new Ministry, he alleged.

He also blamed policy shortcomings and appointment of officials from non-engineering backgrounds among factors leading to its closure.

BSCL was incorporated in 1976 following nationalisation and amalgamation of Burn and Company and Indian Standard Wagon Company Limited in 1987 under Department of Heavy Industries.

The company was referred to Board of Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) in 1994 and was declared sick the next year.

The administrative control of the company was transferred from Department of Heavy Industries to Ministry of Railways in September 2010, as approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs.

Tej Naran Mishra, now 68, is another second-generation worker, but at Sen Raleigh Limited, who also saw the once-celebrated cycle manufacturer close shop in Asansol.

"My father worked with Sen Raleigh since the late 1950s. It was an ideal workplace, offering several amenities to workers," he recounted.

He joined in 1990 after his father passed and saw the unit finally announcing closure later in the same decade.

In 1975, the Union government had taken over the management of the company and continued production under the brand name of Cycle Corporation of India Limited.

But by then the company was embroiled in a series of litigations that led to its closure.

"Every election, political parties and their candidates promise reopening," Mishra said, adding, "but through time, they are quieter on the issue."

- IANS