Hindustan Cables

Hindustan Cables Limited (HCL) is a government-owned company that makes telecom cables in India. It is under the Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises.

Hindustan Cables was founded at Rupnarayanpur in Asansol, West Bengal in 1952. Present headquarters is Kolkata. The objective was to make India self-reliant in manufacturing communications cables. The company has grown to make a broader line of products in locations in Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh), Naini, Allahabad (Uttar Pradesh) as well as the original plant in Rupnarayanpur. In 1984 HCL acquired Machine Tool Works in Narendrapur, Calcutta from Cycle Corporation of India. Products include jelly-filled and fibre-optic cables, telephone and computer cords.

HCL was profitable until 1994, but began incurring losses in 1995. The company was referred to the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction, which was unable to revive it. At one time the company had over 7,000 workers, but by August 2006 there were less than half that number and in 2003 Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), the state-owned telecom provider, stopped placing orders. Tata Consultancy Services was brought in to review the situation and recommended investment to diversify into new product lines. On 17 August 2006 there was a debate in Lok Sabha on revival of HCL, whose employees were not being paid their salaries.

In August 2011 it was reported that HCL had offered almost 973 acres (394 ha) near Asansol in the Bengal coal belt to the National Thermal Power Corporation for a proposed new power plant. HCL owned a jelly-filled cable factory at the site which had been sitting idle for several years. The land would not be sold but would be transferred from the ministry of heavy industries to the ministry of power. Hindustan Cables factories at Rupnarayanpur, Naini and Hyderabad were idle due to lack of orders. These factories employed respectively 1,000, 250 and 900 people. In 2012 the ministry was considering merging HCL with the Ordnance Factory Board. Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd. (RINL) had indicated interest in taking over the Hyderabad unit also ruprnaraynpur unit.