Kakinada: The engineering industry in Andhra Pradesh is in a crisis, with many of the micro small scale industrialists wanting to close their units due to a lack of orders for their products.
According to sources, fabrication, plastic, casting, mechanical, electrical and other products used to be exported to Hyderabad and other parts of Telangana in combined Andhra Pradesh, where a large number of companies had been established over the years. After bifurcation of the state, orders fell drastically and the industry was now sick.
According to trade analysts, the AP Government was not paying any attention to nurture the industry as it was busy with the construction of the capital city and attracting foreign industrialists. Those in the engineering industry would be driven out into the streets due to lack of work, said a producer of mechanical parts. Thousands of workers would become jobless. Already the industry was unable to pay salaries properly to their workers due to lack of orders for their products.
Visakha Auto Nagar Small Scale Industrialists Welfare Association joint secretary D. Vinod Babu, who produ-ces spare parts for diesel engines, said that the state government should pay att-ention to establish and enco-urage new projects in the state, particularly in north Andhra and coastal Andhra where such entrepreneurs were in large numbers.
