Bharat Forge to invest Rs350 crore in Maharashtra

Bharat Forge Ltd., the flagship company of the $2.1 billion Kalyani Group and a leading global supplier of forged and machined components, today signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the government of Maharashtra to invest Rs350 crore in a starting a centre for advanced manufacturing at Baramati, the home district of union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar.

The new facility is intended to be set up over an area of 100 acres with a forging capacity of 30,000 tonnes per year, and will employ over 1,200 skilled professionals. It will manufacture world class high-tech critical and safety components for aerospace, marine, railways, power, energy, mining and construction sectors.

The MoU was signed by V K Jairath, principal secretary (industries), government of Maharashtra and B N Kalyani, chairman and managing director, Bharat Forge, in the presence of Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, minister for industries Ashok Chavan and chief secretary Johny Joseph, and other senior officials of the state government.

Speaking on the occasion, a happy chief minister Deshmukh said, ''This is a major project for Bharat Forge in the new growth and high technology areas, such as aerospace, rail and marine, power, energy, etc, and I am confident that Bharat Forge's track record as an innovative Indian engineering company, this state-of-the-art world class facility will put Baramati on the global map''.

He added that his government would extend all possible assistance to take the project forward, and expressed his intention to ''consolidate Maharashtra's position as the No.1 industrialized state in the country''.

Bharat Forge chairman Baba Kalyani said that this was his company's first major project outside Pune, and that he intended to make the people of Baramati partners in its successful implementation. Confident about the state's future prospects, he added, ''We are confident that we would be able to also contribute in strengthening Baramati's position as a fast growing industrial centre, which is poised to become a global centre of excellence''.

Bharat Forge has manufacturing operations across nine locations and six countries – two in India, three in Germany and one each in Sweden, Scotland, USA and China. Their customers include the top five passenger car and top five commercial vehicle manufacturers in the world, as well as almost all the major OEM (original equipment manufacturer) companies.