C.K. Birla (left), chairman of Hindustan Motors, with managing director R. Santhanam in Calcutta on Friday. Picture by Kishor Roy Chowdhury

Calcutta, July 28: Ailing Hindustan Motors has proposed to develop an auto component park as well as an IT park apart from a residential project on a 314-acre plot at its Uttarpara plant in Bengal.

The company has made a composite proposal to the state government regarding this and is awaiting approval, said chairman C.K. Birla.

He declined to give details of the project but clarified that it would tie up with some developer for this.

“Even though we are yet to market the project, some companies have shown interest in the auto component park,” Birla said, after the 64th annual general meeting of the company here today.

Given that Uttarpara is densely populated, only non-polluting industries will be allowed to be set up. This will rule out some of the polluting auto component businesses.

HM has already initiated its auto component business at Uttarpara with casting, forging and stamping.

Managing director R. Santhanam said the company secured orders from four companies for these products. “We believe that the auto component business will grow significantly going forward.”

However, the company continued to be mired in losses. In the April-June quarter, it suffered a loss of Rs 20.54 crore on a net sales of Rs 141.47 crore. In the corresponding quarter last year, HM reported sales of Rs 211 crore and a net profit of Rs 10.25 crore.

Birla said the company was taking steps to turn into the black. For instance, it is offering more models from the Mitsubishi stable.