By Nageshwar Patnaik in Bhubaneswar, August 5, 2015 : There is good news for the vehicle owners. They need not wait for hours to get their vehicle cleaned or moths for their engine repaired. With the coming of the state-of-art Automobile Servicing Cluster in the capital city here, the vehicles needing repair or maintenance services can be delivered within a couple of hours.

The Automobile Servicing Cluster with Common Facilitation Centre [CFC] proposed at Mancheswar Industrial Estate here is the first pilot service cluster in the country, approved under ‘Micro and Small Enterprises – Cluster Development Programme’ (MSE-CDP) of the union government, officials said adding that the centre would fund 90% of the total project cost.

Though the project cost is yet to be finalized, it could be somewhere between Rs 20 to Rs 30 crore, sources said. The remaining 10% will be borne by OADA members.

The union Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), has launched the cluster development approach as a key strategy for enhancing the productivity and competitiveness as well as capacity building of Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) and their collectives in the country.

“A cluster is a group of enterprises located within an identifiable and as far as practicable, contiguous area and producing same/similar products/services”, a top MSME official said.

Though there are 52 automobile servicing workshops in the Bhubaneswar Municipal Area, excluding the authorized workshops of respective vehicle manufacturers, the facilities in these workshops for repairing Bharat IV [latest upgraded pollution free and automated] variant of vehicles are only available at 3 to 4 workshops.

The workshops have now formed a Trust called Odisha Automobile Development Association (OADA) to implement the project. MSME Development Institute, Cuttack prepared a Diagnostic Study Report justifying such a cluster in the city and sent to the ministry of MSME, which has given its nod to the cluster.

The Report found that most customers do not depend on the authorized service network for vehicles beyond seven years of age, but switch to local auto-workshops, which are not in a position to provide efficient service network. Modern vehicles have much more embedded electronic components and controls that require a higher degree of sophistication for testing and servicing, as well as special diagnostic tools and instruments.

The CFC will have high precision diagnostic tools and instruments, which the workshops can utilize.

The Trust has applied for 16 acres of suitable land in and around the city and the state government has agreed to provide the land free of cost.

“We are backing the project to the hilt. The IDCO will provide suitable land for the cluster. In fact, we have plans for several other clusters also in the state in different areas to leverage the government of India’s programme”, state MSME secretary, Panchanan Das said.

OADA president, Sandeep Mohanty made it clear that as most automotive systems, such as engines, braking, transmission, and steering systems are controlled primarily by computers and electronic components, the present workshops can’t repair these vehicles without the help of such gadgets.

“Besides, an increasing number of high end vehicles have features such as air-bags, global positioning systems, automatic climate controls, etc., with which technicians need to be familiar. Also, with the increasing interest in alternate-fuel vehicles, automotive service technicians in the future would need to learn the technology behind these vehicles and how to repair them. We need to develop the right skill sets in the service manpower”, he added.