Essay on the growth of Engineering Industries in India

These industries are the key industries for industrial development. Prior to independence, India had been importing a variety of engineering goods from other countries of the world.

But presently the country has made a head way in manufacturing different types of engineering goods by developing its own manufacturing in the country.

Engineering Industries include machines, tools, electrical motors, transformers, textiles, agricultural machines, auto parts, ship parts, printing machines, railway engines, railway equipment, tele-communication equipment, armaments etc.

The country has achieved perfection in manufacturing a variety of infrastructural equipment required for its industrial development.

Heavy Machinery Industry.

India has made tremendous progress in manufacturing heavy machines. In 1958 at Ranchi, Heavy Engineering Corporation Ltd. was set up. It has three units:

(i) Heavy Machine Building Plant

(ii) Foundry Forge Plant

(iii) Heavy Machine Tool Plant.

The corporation manufactures heavy crushing and grinding equipment, crane equipment, rolling mill equipment, mining machines, oil drilling rigs, etc.

The Mining and Allied Machinery Corporation Ltd., Durgapur manufactures machines for mining, conveyors, cool cultures, mine locomotives, haulages etc. It meets demand of different concerns like Hindustan Copper Ltd., Bokaro Steel Plant, etc.

There are over 125 units which fabricate steel structure, warehouses, tunnel structures, dam’s structures, large steel plant buildings, railway bridges, hydraulic gates, etc. The Triveni Structural Ltd. at Naini (Allahabad) a joint venture of India an Austria, was set up in 1965 to manufacture complex steel structures such as building structures, power houses, power transmission towers, crane ropeways, etc.

The Tungabhadra Steel Products Ltd. (Karnataka) was set up in 1947. It manufactures transmission towers and penstock pipes. M/s Jessop Co. Ltd., Kolkata and Richardson Cruddas Ltd., Mumbai (now in public sector) also produce machinery and heavy structures.

Larsen and Toubro Ltd., Guest Keen Williams and Greeves Cotton, all based in Mumbai, also manufacture structures. The Bharat Heavy Plate and Vessels Ltd. Vishakhapatnam, was set up in 1966 with Czech assistance. It manufactures equipment for fertilizer, petroleum, petro-chemical and other heavy chemical industries.

India has now become almost self-sufficient in the production of industrial machinery including textiles, cement, sugar, paper, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, coal-mining and washery, fertilizers, dairy, and food processing, leather, metallurgical and steel products.

Taxmaco, set up in 1939 at Mumbai, is the largest unit in the private sector manufacturing textile machinery. M/s G.R. Engineering Works in Mumbai is the largest unit manufacturing sugar industry machinery. There are nearly 60 units in the private sector and 3 units in the public sector which manufacture machinery for chemical and pharmaceutical and other industries.

Machine Tools industry is a vital industry in the present day India. There are over 200 units manufacturing machine tools.

The Hindustan Machine Tools Ltd. (HMT) Bangalore, a public sector undertaking, is the pioneer and the largest manufacturer of machine tools in the the country.

H.M.T Pinjore (Haryana), Kalamassery (Kerala) and Hyderabad (A.P) produce a wide variety of tools like milling machines, radial drilling machines, lathes, grinding machines, tractor parts, watches, etc.

Machine Tools Corporation of India was set up in 1967 at Ajmer.

A heavy machine tools plant was set up at Ranchi for manufacturing railway equipment. M/s Praga Tools Corporation Ltd., Secundrabad produces machine tools, precision tools, auto parts and railway components.

There are more than 100 factories in India which are engaged in manufacturing a long list of machine tools required by assembly industries like automobiles, ships, railway engines, agricultural machines, rail coaches etc.

The major centres are Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Kanpur, Indore, Pune, Faridabad, Jamshedpur, Durgapur, Ludhiana, Kolkata etc.

Machine tools arc exported to different countries like Australia, Canada, South East Asian and West Asian countries.

Heavy Electrical Machinery

India has a well developed heavy electrical machinery manufacturing industry. BHEL (Bharat Heavy Electrical Ltd.) is such one of the most important such organizations.

Bangalore and Jagdishpur produce machines for power houses. There are many private companies also engaged in manufacturing heavy electrical machinery. Bhopal, Haridwar and Hyderabad units of BHEL produce machines for Power houses.

Larsen and Tubro and Jyoti Ltd. are well known concerns manufacturing heavy electrical machinery in the country.