Tata Electronics Plant.
Credit: Reuters Photo
CHENNAI: Key Apple Inc supplier Tata Electronics Private Limited (TEPL) on Thursday resumed partial operations at its massive manufacturing facility in Hosur in Tamil Nadu, where a massive fire broke out on September 28 affecting production.
“We plan to restart work in many areas of the facility today. And as we work toward resuming full operations, all our team members will continue to receive full pay,” a spokesperson for TEPL said.
The company said it accords top priority to the “safety and well-being” of its employees. “We’ve been working diligently since Saturday to support our team and to identify the cause of the fire at our Hosur facility,” the spokesperson added.
As many as 523 people were working inside the campus when the fire broke out at about 5.30 am on Saturday. However, while there were no casualties or injuries, three employees were hospitalised due to breathlessness.
Sources told DH that the fire affected six blocks, of which one block was completely damaged. Krishnagiri district administration has begun a forensic analysis of the campus, which was built in 2021 and employs about 20,000 people of which 15,000 are women.
The fire is believed to have emanated from a chemical godown and spread to adjacent buildings at the factory, which makes enclosures for high-end Apple iPhones, and other components for smartphones.
TEPL is building another facility within the same campus to assemble iPhones, making it the first Indian company to do so. The home-grown company had in January pledged over Rs 10,000 crore for expansion of the Hosur plant and to build the exclusive facility for Apple Inc.
Tata Electronics is the first Indian contract manufacturer of Apple and the third to assemble iPhones in Tamil Nadu, which is already home to Taiwan’s Foxconn and Pegatron.
Tatas were allotted 500 acres in the GMR Krishnagiri Special Investment Region, a joint venture of GMR and Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation Limited (TIDCO), in Uddanapalli near Hosur in 2020 for building an electronics ecosystem.