CUDDALORE: Barely a month after cyclone Thane struck, all the industries in SIPCOT here restarted operations on Friday.However, the rate of production, said to between 50 and 60 per cent at present, remained lower than the rates before the cyclone hit.Roofs were blown off, chimneys collapsed and power supply was completely disrupted in the industrial sector as the cyclone ravaged the region.Thanks to the safety measures that were in place when Thane struck, no serious incidents involving hazardous materials were reported. An assessment of the damage suffered by the industry is still being carried out.However, while power supply to the industrial area was restored on January 24, SIPCOT has been slowly bouncing back to normalcy and renovation work is on full swing. On Friday, TANFAC, a company that was badly affected by the cyclone, restarted production on a trial basis. Commercial production is expected to commence soon.While the present rate of production ranges between 50 and 60 per cent, sources said that it would take two more weeks for the industries to resume full-scale operations.However, even as production resumed, some industries are reportedly facing a shortage of manpower. “Houses of contract labourers and also those of regular employees were affected by the cyclone. Now they are busy repairing the houses and getting other relief assistance. Hence, a considerable number of employees are not comingw to works these days,” explained a source.Meanwhile, authorities at SIPCOT have decided to launch a drive to plant tree saplings. Cuddalore SIPCOT Industries Association secretary K Indra Kumar said, “We are going to plant 5,000 saplings in the SIPCOT area in a month. Within a few months we will plant thousands of saplings with an aim to restore the lost greenery.”
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