Telcon plans Rs 600-cr investment in Bengal

Kolkata: The West Bengal Government on Thursday handed over on lease 250 acres of land near Kharagpur to Telco Construction Equipment Company Ltd (Telcon) for the setting up of a heavy earth moving equipment manufacturing facility there at an estimated investment of Rs 600 crore. The land has been leased out for a period of 99 years.

Telcon is a joint venture of the Tata Group and Hitachi Construction Machinery Company Ltd of Japan. While the Tata Group holds 60 per cent of the equity stake in the company, the balance is held by Hitachi.

Addressing a news conference here on Thursday, Mr Nirupam Sen, West Bengal’s Minister for Industries and Commerce, said an additional 90 acres would be allotted to vendors who would supply components to the Telcon facility.

Aggregate investment by the vendors was expected to be of the order of Rs 500 crore.

The Telcon project would provide direct employment to around 500 people. Another 500 people would be engaged by vendors in the “vendors park”, Mr Sen said.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Rana Sinha, Managing Director of Telcon, said the Kharagpur project would be implemented in three phases. The first phase of the project would entail the setting up of an assembly shop and painting line. It would be operational by March 2009. The second and final phases of the project would be ready by March 2010 and 2011, respectively.

Mr Sinha said an R&D centre would also be set up at Kharagpur. It would be the hub of Hitachi’s global R&D operations.

“The R&D centre will be Hitachi’s first R&D centre outside of Japan,” he said. Hitachi has a 53 per cent share of the Indian market for hydraulic excavators, he added.