China's TCL to start making TV sets at Tirupati unit next year

Firm plans to invest Rs 22 bn, employ 8,000 people at 158 acre plant with 6-mn-set capacity

TCL, one of the world's largest TV panel makers from China, performed the groun-breaking ceremony for its upcoming manufacturing plant in India at Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, on Thursday. The state government has provided 158 acres for the proposed factory.

The manufacturing plant will be set up in a record eight months time and will have a capacity to manufacture six million TV sets annually when fully operational, according to the company officials. TCL had recently signed an MoU with AP's IT department on their proposed investment in the state.

The company proposes to invest Rs 22 billion and employ about 8,000 people in the facility over a period of time. TCL Industries Holdings(Hong Kong) Limited chairman Li Dongsheng also visited the site for the ground-breaking ceremony.

Speaking on this occasion, AP chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu said the temple town of Tirupati will be attracting more than Rs 300 billion investments in electronics hardware industry in the coming months. Naidu said his government has named Tirupati and adjoining region as the silicon corridor as this region was going to house the manufacturing of every important component of electronics and mobile phone equipment in the near future.

Among the upcoming investments, Reliance Group had recently announced to establish an electronics hardware park in 150 acres at Tirupati for making mobile phones, TV sets among other devices at a cumulative investment of 150 billion. The Chinese mobile phone brand Xiaomi's manufacturing partner Holitech is also setting up a manufacturing facility to produce mobile phone camera modules and TV panels at Tirupati. 

It may be recalled that the global electronics OEM company Foxconn began producing made in India(MI) brand phones for Xiaomi from its manufacturing plant at Sri City in 2015. It currently employs around 15,000 people, mostly women.