A section of workers of the Incab Industries Limited, led by retired employee Bhagwati Singh, has petitioned the Calcutta bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) expressing willingness to run the company that has been non-operational for almost two decades.

Singh in his petition to the NCLT, a quasi- judicial body which helps in revival of sick industries, said that the employees want to revive the company.

“We oppose the resolution for liquidation recently passed by the committee of creditors (CoC) of Incab. The resolution professional (RP) appointed by NCLT has so far failed to prepare the statement of assets and liabilities and financial statements of the ailing company. Therefore, the workmen propose to take over and run the company through a resolution plan. Under the plan all employees are resolution applicants under the law,” Singh has said in the petition.

A.K. Shrivastava, a senior advocate fighting the case for the employees, said the workers had pointed out that Incab's Jamshedpur plant and township is spread over 177 acres of land while the plant in Pune is over 36 acres.

Incab also has several properties in metro cities and towns across the country.

“The applicants propose to sell a portion of the surplus land and properties which will fetch around Rs 300 crore at current market value,” Shrivastava said.

“The workmen also propose to pay the entire principal amount of the secured creditors of Rs 48 crore in contrast to the proposal of Tata Steel which has proposed 50 per cent to secured creditors.

“The workers have also proposed to pay around 25 per cent of the dues of employees initially which will be around another Rs 50 crore.”

The petition stated that of the remaining Rs 200 crore, Rs 150 crore would be used to finance the capital investment and remaining Rs 50 crore shall be kept aside for working capital requirement in running the company.

Incab has around 900 employees on its rolls at the Jamshedpur plant have been deprived of salaries ever since the company was closed in 2000.

Even employees who are getting superannuated are deprived of their provident fund and other retirement dues. Incab has another 200 employees at its Pune unit and 40 at its headquarters in Calcutta.

Once a bluechip company, Incab ran into trouble in 1999 as it suffered losses.

The next NCLT hearing is scheduled for Thursday.