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Coimbatore, Apr 12 (UNI) Larsen and Toubro (L&T), the four billion US dollars engineering, technology and construction company today inaugurated the first two units for production of high-end industrial valves and switchboards at its 300 acre campus on the city outskirts.

The switchboards unit was inaugurated by R N Mukhija, President (Operations) and members of the board, while the valves division of L&T's associate company, Audco India Limited (AIL) was jointly inaugurated by K V Rengasami, President (Operations) and Mr Lewis M Kling, President and Chief Executive Officer of Flowserve Corporation, USA. AIL is a joint venture of L&T and Flowserve.

Later, talking to newspersons, Mr Rengasami said the valves division was the fourth manufacturing unit of AIL. It had equal equity participation of L&T and Floserve Corporation. The other three units were situated at Chennai, Maraimalai Nagar and Kancheepuram.

The initial investment will be Rs 30 crore and another Rs 35 crore will be invested in this unit within three years. This unit will provide employment opportunities to 250 people directly and 100 indirectly. The company has established itself as a global leader for manufacture and supply of valves and customised flow control products for major refineries, petrochemical plants, LNG>L projects.

He said AIL exports almost 60 per cent of its production and supplies were made to various plants in USA, Europe, Middle East Africa and Asian Pacific.

He said the additional capacities being created in this unit will help to meet higher demands for Gate, Globe, Check and Ball valves, including larger sizes upto 60 inches. The unit will also have CNC machines for precision and critical operations, automatic welding machines for plasma, sub-arc and MIG processes.

The unit was equipped with a pressurised system for dust-free manufacuring, he said adding that the AIL plans to operate the plant with latest manufacturing systems backed by highly qualified and skilled manpower.

All four factories of AIL were integrated by an SAP-ERP system for seamless operations, he added.

UNI