GE to set up manufacturing unit in India

US-based General Electric on Monday said it would set up a multi-facility infrastructure manufacturing unit in India, employing at least 3,000 people.

“Initially, we would invest $50 million (Rs 250 crore)...Total investment will be $200 million and the company will take a call in the next three to six months,” Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Immelt told journalists here.

The facility would focus on equipment for the energy sector, besides aviation and health areas. “Within the next quarter or 90 days, we would announce the facility and the construction work would start in the second quarter (July-September),” he said.

The company did not give details of possible locations but said it had shortlisted places. “Our energy business would be the principal user of the facility... It would create upward of 3,000 jobs,” he added. The company currently employs around 12,000 persons in India across healthcare, technology, finance and energy infrastructure sectors.

At present, GE has a workforce of 6,300 in the company’s manufacturing business in the US, which would rise to over 8,000 by the end of 2011, as the company would be adding around 2,000 workers there, he said in response to a question whether the jobs in India would replace existing workers.

GE also wishes to set up a locomotive manufacturing unit in India, though Immelt said he was frustrated by the delay in decisions here. “We want to have a deep-rooted locomotive manufacturing base in India,” he said. GE has been planning to enter this segment here for the past decade but has not been able to make a breakthrough. GE, with Siemens, Bombardier and Alstom, were shortlisted for the Rs 1,960-crore electric locomotive project in Madhepura, Bihar, on a public-private partnership basis, but bidding was scrapped twice. The bids were floated for the first time in April 2008.