The Kolkata-headquartered Rs 1,400 crore TIL group will next month bring on stream its Rs 150-crore Changual plant in Kharagpur, West Bengal.

Located nearly 100 km from Kolkata, the unit will manufacture port and yard equipment.

The company is setting up another plant at identical cost at the Vidyasagar Industrial Park, also in Kharagpur, to manufacture reach stackers, cranes and other coal handling equipment.

This will be operational by April 2013.

“We have divided our greenfield expansion plans into two projects. The first project will be inaugurated on November 18,” Mr Alok Banerjee, chief financial officer, TIL told Business Line .

Manufacturing Tie-Ups

The Changual unit will manufacture port and yard equipment including gantry cranes (in collaboration with Mitsui of Japan) and crushers and screens (with US-based Astec Aggregate and Mining Group).

The company will collaborate with Astec Telsmith to manufacture coal handling equipment, and with Hyster for reach stackers.

It already has technical tie-ups with Manitowoc to manufacture cranes.

The new product lines are expected to reduce TIL's dependence on its Caterpillar dealership business and boost its topline.

The products will be non-competing with Caterpillar's offerings.

Caterpillar contributes nearly 80 per cent to the company's revenues while the rest is from the cranes division.

TIL has already transferred its Caterpillar dealership business into a wholly-owned subsidiary — Tractors India Pvt Ltd (TIPL).

The new businesses are being taken up by the holding company TIL.

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