Mumbai: Engineering and construction major Larsen and Toubro (L&T) has entered into a strategic alliance with GE Energy to tap the Indian power generation market.

"L&T was looking to provide reliable control systems offering for the rapidly developing power generation sector in order to complete its electrical and automation suite," R N Mukhija, president operations and member of the board of L&T, said.

Atlanta, US-based GE Energy is a leader in power plant automation solutions and these ''were the key areas we were looking for in order to complete our electrical and automation suite,'' Mukhija said in a statutory filing with the Bombay Stock Exchange.

"This agreement with GE for the OC4000 series DCS, fulfills this need and is an important step in serving the power plant automation space," Mukhija added.

Under the agreement signed between the two companies, GE Energy will provide its power plant control systems to L&T which, in turn, will tap the Indian market.

The deal will help GE Energy showcase its power plant automation products as ''L&T has a strong presence in the Indian market,'' said GE Energy's Jayaraman Kishore.

GE Energy is a global supplier of power generation and energy delivery technologies.

L&T plans to leverage its strengths in engineering and project execution to deliver comprehensive power plant automation solution to its customers in India.

L&T, meanwhile, launched its high-end electrical & automation systems manufacturing unit in Saudi Arabia
 
L&T Electricals Saudi Arabia Company Limited (LTESA), the joint venture between Larsen & Toubro International FZE (LTFZE) and Yusuf Bin Ahmed Kanoo, inaugurated its switchboards manufacturing facility in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia last week.

LTESA will engage in design, engineering and manufacturing solution of conventional and intelligent power and motor control systems with automation in the low voltage (LV) and medium voltage (MV) categories. It will also offer project equipment and allied products to Saudi Arabia's infrastructure, oil and gas, and industrial sectors.

The inauguration of the LTESA facility comes close on the heels of L&T completing the integration process of the switchgear facilities of Tamco of Malaysia, which it had acquired in October 2007.

With facilities in Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Indonesia, China and Australia, L&T's electricals business now has a wide footprint to service some of the fastest growing markets in the Asia Pacific region as well as in the Gulf countries.

Larsen & Toubro Group is $7 billion technology-driven engineering and construction organisation, and one of the largest companies in India's private sector.