Page 9 - Gujar Mal Modi

hardworking, peace-loving and deeply religious. Behind the big-size mansions

flanking both sides of the main road, there are rows of residential quarters built
for the employees working in the various industries in the town. The houses neat,

clean and close to their place of work, provide comfortable accommodation to
the workers.

The first factory to come up in this area was a small sugar mill with an initial

capacity of crushing 800 tons of sugarcane per day and employing about two
hundred workers. This was in the year 1933. It marked the beginning of the long

process of industrialisation which was to change the entire landscape.

The capacity of the sugar mill was quickly expanded to 1132 tons of sugarcane

per day. About seven years later came the vanaspati factory whose popular
brand, Kotogem, continues to be a household name. Thereafter, during the peri-

od from 1940 to 1963 came the soap factory, the oil crushing plant, the paint and
varnish factory, the glycerine extraction plant, the cotton textile mill, the lantern

factory, the torch factory, the arc electrodes factory, the sted mill. the silk and
yarn mill and the thread mill among others all in quick succession.

Who is the moving spirit behind this vast industrial complex embracing in its

fold more than twenty industries and supporting a population of 80,000? Mr.
Gujarmal Modi, the industrialist with a vision was an embodiment of enterprise.

The story of the development of Modinagar is the history of his dogged deter-
mination.

Tall, well-built he stood erect even in old age. He could be seen with a walking
stick in his hand while he took his morning and evening walks, but the stick was

more a symbol of com mand than a necessity. The penetrating gaze underneath
his dense eyebrows indicated a deep insight born of sincere hard work and pro-

found experience. He had his hands on the pulse of almost every single individ-
ual who mattered in one or the other of the various factories run by him or by

the members of his big family. He discussed and solved the intricate problems of
the industry with the same ease and attention as he listen ed to and resolved the

difficulties of the smallest of his numerous workmen.

It is well-known that almost three-fourths of all the factories and buildings in

02