The Union government?s policy persuasion of unleashing the full potential of public sector undertakings has breathed some hope into companies like Hindustan Steelworks Construction (HSCL), which a few months ago seemed to be going nowhere.

Besides taking the initiative to list profit-making PSUs, the government has started identifying sick PSUs that can possibly turn around and in due course become eligible for listing. HSCL is one such company that has started looking forward to getting listed, though it is under the Board for Reconstruction of Public Sector Enterprises from 2007.

?I may sound a bit too ambitious when I say that we hope to get listed in the near future. But we now have a clear road map, on the strength of which I say this,? Malay Chatterjee, chairman and managing director, said.

Kolkata-based HSCL, Chatterjee said, is waiting for the Cabinet to clear its revival package, which envisages (a) conversion of Rs 518-crore Plan loan and interest into equity, (b) waiver of Rs 513-crore non-Plan loan with interest,(c) reimbursement of outstanding interest subsidy on term loan and (d) waiver of the outstanding guarantee commission on term loan, bank guarantee and cash credit.

The company has an interest burden of Rs 376 crore. Once the revival package is implemented in its totality, HSCL would be free from its accumulated loss of Rs 1,407 crore. The entire accumulated loss is on account of loan burden, Chatterjee said.

HSCL was formed in 1964 to set up SAIL?s Bokaro and Bhilai steel plants but it lost its relevance soon after these two plants were commissioned. ?The objective of creating this PSU was very limited and so after these plants were set up, HSCL actually had nothing to do save for maintaining some employee quarters of SAIL and filling ash ponds,? Chatterjee said.

HSCL was a SAIL subsidiary then, but later on it was brought under the administrative control of the steel ministry. But that had little impact on the company?s working, as securing orders in the steel sector was becoming difficult for it.

According to MK Roy, general manager,.the company last reported a net profit in 1978-79. From then on, it has been making losses every year.

Meanwhile, the ministry recast the company?s business and widened its scope of activity. Thus, HSCL became an infrastructure company to take up government civil construction jobs. It was a slow and gradual turnaround. From a position of questionable sustainability, HSCL became an operationally profit-making company from 2002-03, posting an operational profit of Rs 3.94 crore that year.The operational profit has since risen to Rs 52.48 crore in 2009-2010, on a turnover of Rs 800 crore. ?In 2010-2011, we expect our operational profit to exceed Rs 80 crore,? Roy said.

According to Chatterjee, the company?s entry into road, bridge and building construction gave it a new stream of revenue. Now, it has firmed up plans to enter all segments of infrastructure. It is also exploring foreign collaborations to strengthen its expertise and enter the coal sector, while sharpening its competence in taking up steel project jobs.

?Our hands are now full with orders and my present order book is worth Rs 3,300 crore.? HSCL?s order book boasts of a Rs 900-crore order for constructing government hospitals across India, Rs 600-crore order for building disaster shelters in 90 places (under a Disaster Management Authority Project funded by the Prime Minister?s relief fund), Rs 800-crore order for river training in Bihar, Rs 150-crore order for building schools across the country under the aegis of HRD ministry, Rs 700-crore order for making roads in Jharkhand and Tripura under Pradhanmantri Gram Sadak Yojana and a Rs 100-crore order for setting up a rod mill in Bhilai Steel Plant.

Chatterjee said the company was anticipating more orders in the steel sector as SAIL has drawn up a Rs 55,000-crore expansion plan. Even getting 10% of that work would bolster HSCL fortunes.

The company has made a technology tie-up with Romania?s Ugime Export to better handle steel projects and has set its eyes on coal washeries, for which it is in talks with German and Polish companies for technology sharing. The company is also exploring whether it can enter into coal mining by tying up with a power producer.

But all these would call for restructuring HSCL?s manpower, which mostly comprises semi-skilled people.

During the ?70s, when the company had a workforce of 26,500 people, the biggest chunk was semi-skilled labourers. The workforce size was brought down to 13,500 in 1999, and to 947 by now. This would go down to 751 by the end of 2010-11, Roy said. Chatterjee added that the number would shrink below 650 eventually.

?The major chunk of our current workforce is engaged in menial jobs like filling the ash ponds in steel plants or maintaining SAIL?s housing. We have few technocrats and engineers to work with us. But this will entirely change in the years to come, with quite a good number of engineers to be appointed. And menial jobs would be done through contract labour,? Chatterjee said.

That would be remarkable turnaround for a company that was reduced to an apology of a public enterprise.