Downfall of a mighty industry in Vijayawada’s Auto Nagar Premium

Auto Nagar, a bustling automotive hub facing decline due to BS VI norms, struggles with unemployment and changing industry dynamics.

Auto Nagar, one of the largest automotive hubs in the country, is akin to an engine running in full throttle. On its main road swarm innumerable people and vehicles, and in its air lingers the odour of diesel and old grease.

When, however, one enters the dusty and wide lane of the 4th Cross Road, once home for scores of lorry-body building workshops and lined on either side by old-fashioned lorries renowned for their fabulous paint works, the din slowly dies.

Except for the occasional clanging of metal tools and the whirring of motors, the road remains silent. Many of its signature workshops (or sheds in local parlance) have put up the shutters, for good. The feverish activity so characteristic of Auto Nagar is starkly missing here.

Sheik Kaza, who supervises works relating to painting of lorries at Sheik Muneer Body-Building Workshop, sits inside a small office, wearing a clean sky-blue kurta. He was free to talk for a long time, which, he says, was unusual at this time of the year. Earlier, there were 25 people working under him; now, there are three, he says with a smile, which, however, failed to mask his fears of unemployment.

Most of the interior streets, where hundreds of lorry-body building workshops are located, wear a similar, forlorn look, with men having nothing much to do, despite January being the season for their business. Dust seemed to be the most active detail in the locality, covering everything and everyone.

The reasons for this reversal of fortunes are various, Mr. Sheik Kaza begins. The first has to do with a policy decision by the Centre, the second is the falling number of youth coming for work and the third is the decisions of the State government over the past five years, which put lorry owners in a fix.

In February 2016, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways released a draft notification on Bharat Stage (BS) VI standards for all on-road vehicles, and the new norms came into effect on April 1, 2020. Though the transition was aimed at laying a foundation for a greener future by reducing emissions from vehicles, its impact was severe on lorry-body building units in the unorganised sector.