Nearly two years after it shut shop, the Hindustan Machine Tools factory in Uttaranchal's Ranibagh started functioning on Friday in order to complete its pending order of watches estimated to be worth Rs 1.5 crore, reported The Times of India.

An official from HMT's management said, "We had received orders for 5,500 watches from our Bengaluru office in December. We have to complete the order by March 2016. The work has started for that." He added that the factory may subsequently be transformed into an ordinance unit and will not function as an HMT arm after this last batch is manufactured.

In September 2014, the central government had decided to close all HMT units in the country after the company made losses since 2000. Its employees had been protesting for the factory's revival for the past year. According to the report, they are now hopeful that their future will be secure if the factory gets converted into an ordinance unit.

Set up in 1961 in Bangalore, HMT was the first manufacturer of wristwatches in the country.