HCL's Rudrapur plant kicks off; eyes 2 mln capacity

Rudrapur, Uttaranchal, Oct 29 (UNI) Eyeing to double its overall capacity to two million units per annum, HCL Infosystems, India's largest computer manufacturer, has rolled out its new manufacturing facility here.

Spread over 10 acres of land in the SIDCUL Industrial Estate at Pant Nagar, the company's sixth and the largest-in-area plant will initially manufacture 3,000 units a year. This will be ramped up to 10 lakh per annum in 2-3 years time at a cost of Rs 75 crore in 3-5 years, a part of which has already been invested.

The company has five other plants-- three in Puducherry and two in Chennai.

''This facility will complement our existing manufacturing base at Puducherry, which has the capacity of 10 lakh PCs per annum, taking our overall annual capacity to two million units per annum,'' HCL Infosystems Chairman and CEO Ajai Chowdhry told reporters here.

The facility is ISO 14001 and ISO 9001:2000 certified and has the capability to manufacture an entire spectrum of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) products including note books, servers as well as thin clients.

The company has already recruited 200 people in the new plant and seeks to take it up to 500 as the unit commissions full capacity.

''With mulit-product manufacturing capabilities, HCL will be India's largest vertically integrated ICT manufacturing facility.

Besides enabling us to manufacture a wide spectrum of ICT products, this facility will also allow us to offer more enhanced value to our customers through better logistics efficiency, lower time to market as well as de-risk our complete manufacturing portfolio with strong facility base in both southern and northern India,'' he said.

Moreover, it makes the company future-ready to take on the expected strong growth potential in Indian PC market, Mr Chowdhry added.

HCL Infosystems currently manufactures 40 per cent of all the components of a computer, including LCD monitors, keyboards and management softwares, and endeavours to take up production of more components like optical drives and power supplies in future.

Presently, it outsources the manufacturing of optical drives and power supplies to foreign firms and local manufacturers.

Speaking on its plan to manufacturing more components, Mr Chowdhry said that taking up more manufacturing requires policy formation regarding areas like component manufacturing by the government.

He pointed out that Manufacturers' Association for Information Technology (MAIT) has prepared a list of recommendations regarding the infrastructure creation and allowing components manufacturing on a larger scale. The list will soon be presented to the government.

Comparing the current sales of five million personal computers per annum in the country with that of 25 million personal computers in China, the CEO said he expects the Indian figures to double to 10 million per annum by 2010.

Company Executive Vice President Rajendra Kumar said market potential of PCs in India is growing at 30-35 per cent per annum, while the market for notebooks is growing at 150 per cent per annum.

HCL Infosystems has 30-40 per cent share in the total PC market.

''We are sure that this new facility of HCL will further enable them to take computing and ICT right to the most remote corner of the country and will also prominently display the state on the Indian IT map,'' Uttaranchal Chief Minister N D Tiwari said while inaugurating the facility.

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