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Naidu lays foundation stone for Videocon unit

Mohammed Shafeeq in Hyderabad

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu invited manufacturing companies to set up their units at the Hardware Park, near Hyderabad, promising to remove bottlenecks in customs, central excise and airport clearances.

Naidu said that Hardware Park at Mamidipalli village, about 30 km from Hyderabd, would be an ideal location for manufacturing companies as the government was creating world-class infrastructure like international airport, reliable power and logistics for movement of goods.

Earlier, the chief minister laid the foundation stone for a manufacturing facility of consumer electronic major Videocon International Limited at Hardware Park and thanked it for choosing Hyderabad.

The unit will manufacture Internet televisions, computer peripherals, color televisions, refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners and DVD players.

The Rs 1.5 billion-facility is the first unit to be set up at Hardware Park, the ambitious project of the state government. It will begin production in six months, Videocon chairman Venugopal N Dhoot said.

The plant will increase company's total capacity for color televisions to 2.5 million units, refrigerators to 1.5 million units and washing machines to one million units, Dhoot said.

Pradipkumar N Dhoot, president of the company, said Videocon's market share would increase from 16 per cent to 20 per cent with this new venture, adding that the demand for Internet television had begun to pick up.

As the difference in the prices of a TV and an Internet TV will not be more than Rs 3,000, the company hopes that 30 percent of the demand would shift to the latter.

Videocon, a Rs 45-billion group, already has manufacturing facilities at Aurangabad, Bangalore, Hosur, Gandhinagar and Calcutta and new ones are planned at Bhopal, Chandigarh and Noida.

Videocon said it would donate the first 100 Internet TV sets to be produced at the unit to the state government for use in schools. These TV sets worth Rs 2 million will be handed over to the state's school education department.

Naidu said the state would be biggest buyer of Videocon's hi-tech products like Internet TVs to promote distance education and electronic governance. The company promised to supply its products at cost price for use in schools.

Indo-Asian News Service

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