Motorola starts 1st centre in Chennai

By OUR CORRESPONDENT

Chennai, April 27: US cellphone major Motorola on Sunday commenced production at its manufacturing facility in Sriperumbudur, near Chennai. This is Motorola’s first manufacturing plant in India and the second largest outside United States.

The company has invested around Rs 172.4 crore in the plant, which is spread over 2,70,000 sq.ft.

Inaugurating the new facility, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Dr M. Karunanidhi, said, "I would like to make Sriperumbudur the largest hub for mobile handsets manufacturing."

He said, "Nokia has already set up its operations and Samsung is also in the process of establishing a facility here."

He said that during the last two years, the government has signed 13 MoUs worth Rs 17,583 crores,

"Out of 13 companies, six have already commenced operations and has provided employment for 1.42 lakh people," he said.

The facility has a capacity to manufacture 12 million handsets and 6,500 base terminal stations annually.

The Sriperumbudur plant is Motorola’s first complete hardware manufacturing unit in India with software, R&D, complete product manufacturing facility for GSM and CDMA handsets.

The commerce secretary, Mr Gopal K Pillai, said Sriperumbudur would be an electronic hub in the world.