Mitsubishi Elevators, a subsidiary of Japanese industrial giant Mitsubishi Electrical Corporation, is learnt to be setting up a greenfield plant to manufacture elevators and escalators at Vemagal, 60 km from Bangalore, at an investment of Rs 150-200 crore, sources with knowledge of the development told Deccan Herald.
“Vemagal in Kolar district is fast emerging as an alternative to Narsapura which has become saturated with no new land banks emerging. Mitsubshi has been allocated 22 acres of land at Vemagal for its new factory. Vemagal holds promise for the state as an alternative industrial hub to Narsapura,” a source said.
KIADB is understood to be in the process of completing the land allocation formalities required by the company.
Mitsubishi had last week signalled its intentions to invest in Karnataka in line with the state government going full throttle with its efforts to woo more Japanese companies into the state ahead of the Global Investors’ Meet (GIM) scheduled to be held in the early part of next year.
Mitsubishi Electric Corporation had established Mitsubishi Elevator ETA India Pvt Ltd to develop and market elevators and escalators in India in August 2012. The company is now focusing on rapid development of products suited to the needs of Indian customers.
The company had recently launched its Nexiez-Lite, a new lineup of its Nexiez series of elevators for low and mid-rise residential and office buildings. Annual sales of 1,000 units are targeted by 2016. The elevators come with emergency landing devices and safety functions such as multi-beam door sensor to enhance user safety, besides LEDs for elevator lighting which the company says will reduce power consumption by 75 per cent compared to traditional incandescent bulbs.
With the new facility, Mitsubishi Elevators is looking to launch a series of elevators that deliver basic features selected from the platform designs of Mitsubishi Electric’s Nexiez global series of elevators.
Currently, about 270 Japanese companies, including Toyota, Honda, Casio and Fujitsu have opened their units in Karnataka. Companies like Keihin Corporation, Toshiba-Mitsubishi Industrial Systems and Tsujikawa are currently in the final stages of setting up manufacturing operations in the state.
The state government is also looking at the possibility of setting up a Japanese township at Vasanthanarasapura in Tumkur district, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said last week.