PALANPUR:::: Kanodar makes a name in jeep reconditioning workshops Tuesday, August 7, 2001
BY PRAMOD PANWAR, The Times of India News Service
PALANPUR: Unlike other villages that came under the domain of the Nawab of Palanpur state, Kanodar has certain privileges.
Located on the main Ahmedabad- Delhi highway it is known for its hard-working populace. Any wonder Kanodar had carved out a niche for itself with its export of handloom and textile products even in olden days. In fact, old-timers recall how Kanodari goods were prized in Afghanistan, Iran and the Persian Gulf states. Of course, things have changed considerably since then.
What strikes one at Kanodar is the presence of veiled women with majority of them being Shia Muslims, popularly known as Momins or Mumans.
Hard work and entrepreneurship have helped them to make jeeps out of junk. While the automobile industry is restructuring models to make four-wheelers more comfortable and likeable to high-tech imports, Kanodar is catering to the needs of the middle class. About 50 workshops located on both sides of the highway on a stretch 10-km from here, have been beckoning the middle class segment.
The workshop owners pick up jeeps from government and semi-government agencies and at auctions all over India, especially from junk bazaars in Delhi, U.P., MP and Maharashtra.. The vehicles are reconditioned, the registration number transferred in customer's name and a no objection certificate obtained from the RTO to take the vehicle out of the state. Around 40 workshops cater to jeeps, and half-a-dozen handle tractors and light vehicles, like auto-rickshaws and two-wheelers.
The customers come here from Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, says IsubBhai Musa, an expert broker of reconditioned
jeeps. However, there is a slump in sales now, he adds.
Haze Rasulbhai of Badarpura village is considered a pioneer of the auto industry in the village for he set up the first workshop in 1967. Since then over 50 workshops have come up in the village. While a score of them provide all kinds of spare parts even cheaper and in good quality, garage owner from Kheda district who frequently visits the Auto Bazar here claims that "What we do not get in Ahmedabad or in other big cities can be had here. Being a small place it is compact and the things are easily available at reasonably competitive rates. Almost every dealer is personally known to us. So there is hardly the fear of being cheated.
Moreover replacement of parts is no problem here. According to Yashin Chaudhary who has invested Rs.3l lakh in manufacturing unit of spare parts claims that 150 to 200 jeeps have been reconditioned and every year from Kanodar at least 100 jeeps speed out to other states.
Another workshop owner Rasulbhai says with the advent of new jeep models and availability of vehicles on instalment or finance schemes, the sale of their vehicles has gone down by half.
Several workshops have the capacity to convert a petrol-run model into a diesel-run one.
News Source : Times Of India News Service [ Lightning News ]