Cummins' Pune unit to rev up production

Power solutions and diesel engines manufacturer Cummins India is looking at Pune to set up a facility to quadruple its capacity to manufacture generators in the 15 KVA-140 KVA range.

Currently, this function is done at the Daman plant, which churns out 15,000 generators.

With an investment of Rs 14 crore, the new facility will become operational by next year, chairman and managing director Anant Talaulicar told the company's annual general meeting (AGM) on Thursday.

Talaulicar said the company was in the process of finalising the plot for the new plant. "We will manufacture generators and B series engines in addition to the lean-burn engines for the automobile segment at the new plant," he added.

Talaulicar said the company had modelled generators that would use biomass as fuel and had held trials. These will be in the 50 KVA-200 KVA range.

"The trials held at five spots showed an encouraging result and we hope to serve needs of industries in rural of India where power is not easily available," he added Talaulicar said the company had also developed a smaller capacity biomass-based generator in the 20 KVA- 30KVA range, targetting the community lighting needs in villages. These will run on bio-fuels like wood and rice husk, he said.

"The company will take advantage of various incentives offered by the government for development of energy solutions based on biomass," he said.

The company developed marine engines for the export market and 12 such engines were exported in the 2006-07 period.

The company plans to make and export 300 such engines this year, he said. The firm has also decided to double the production of C series engines.