While Tata Engineering is saying that everything that it is doing ``is basically a reorganisation and not a pushing out exercise,'' many of the ancillary units, concentrated mainly in and around the industrial area of Adityapur here, fear that they would now be left high and dry by Tata Engineering after being patronised for a long time. These units invested heavily ``solely because Tata Engineering had patronised us for such a long time,'' as the owner of an ancillary put it.

There is also a general complaint that Tata Engineering has not been taking the ancillary units into confidence in whatever it has been planning.

``There should be some information, some dialogue with the units that are totally dependent on Tata Engineering. They are here today as the company wanted them to be here,'' he added.

However, a Tata Engineering spokesman dismissed it by saying, "all that is hogwash. It is always a mutually beneficial relationship in business." From April 1, Tata Engineering has stopped assembling its 697-engines used on the HCVs. The engine is now being procured from Tata Cummins. This has made many ancillaries redundant. The company's move to carve new entities such as HV Axles Pvt Ltd and HV Transmissions Ltd, have already made the local suppliers nervous.

According to the Tata Engineering spokesman, ``we are moving into a higher level of aggregation.'' Explaining the policy, he said, ``the assembled aggregate, like a gear box, a sheet metal component, etc, would be procured from some big ancillaries on self-certification basis.'' The number of suppliers of such sub-assemblies is expected to be around nine, compared to the company's present practice of procuring parts of different major items from numerous sources for further in-house assembly.