Isro takes over 109 acres of HMT's Tumakuru unit land

The 109 acres of the now defunct public sector unit Hindustan Machine Tools (HMT) Watches was transferred to the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) at a handover ceremony in Tumakuru on Saturday.

Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara and HMT General Manager Patnaik handed over the documents of 109 acres of HMT watch-making unit in Tumakuru to Isro representative S Kumaraswamy, Joint Secretary to Department of Space.

The Tumakuru division of HMT manufactured the once iconic HMT brand wrist watches. But the Central Public Sector Enterprise lost out to the competition from the private sector.

In 2012-13, the company had incurred losses to the tune of Rs 242 crore while it earned just Rs 11 crore.

The Union government, in Sept 2016, had shut down the bleeding HMT units.

After Isro shown interest in procuring the HMT land in Bengaluru and Tumakuru, the Centre gave its nod for the transfer of 208.35 acres of land to India's premier space organisation, in April 2017, for Rs 1,194.21 crore.

Ministers Venkataramanappa, S R Srinivas, MPs S P Muddahanumegowda and B N Chandrappa, Tumakuru city MLA G B Jyothiganesh, former MLAs K N Rajanna and Rafique Ahmed among others were present at the handing over ceremony.