Friday, March 4 2005 16:54 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Bangalore: Global giant Nokia would set up a manufacturing plant in India with an investment in the region of $ 100 million and $ 150 million, a senior company executive said today (Mar 4, 2005).

An announcement regarding details of the facility and its location, among others, would be made within the next four to six weeks, Nokia India's head (Marketing), Sanjay Behl told reporters in Bangalore.

Behl said it would be a "fairly large" factory, which would eventually house 2000 people. "We will start off with a slightly smaller base but very soon it would be scaled up to 2000".

He said the company is currently in dialogue with various State Governments on locating the plant, which is going to be it's tenth such facility in the world and produce both GSM and CDMA handsets.

"Currently, we are in dialogue with a lot of State Governments. We are looking for right venue, which has right infrastructural abilities and everything," Behl said. "The decision is four to six weeks away."

Stating that the plant to be set up in India is going to be a world standard one, he said it's not only going to cater to Indian demands but also "large parts of the globe at this part of the world".

Behl declined to talk about the proposed plant's capacity at this stage. "Manufacturing is going to move into India very soon. Within a time-frame of about a year or so or may be earlier than that."

Citing industry sources and published figures, Nokia claims a market-share in excess of 65 per cent in GSM mobile handsets market in India. "In CDMA, we have no measured industry source to tell us about what's the right market-share'.

Responding to questions, Behl said a "fairly large" percentage of software used in Nokia mobile phones worldwide was developed by the company's team of more than 150 engineers in Bangalore.

He said the company has a CDMA R&D facility in Mumbai housing 25 to 30 people focusing on entire value domains of CDMA. "The organisation will go through a huge rapid growth (in India) in terms of getting right competencies".

Asked about Nokia's strategy in view of increasing competition in the Indian marketplace, Behl said: "Wherever there is going to be new market coming up, we would like to be the first there, providing right products offering best value to the consumer".

In the existing markets, Nokia's strategy is to have "right upgrades", among others.

India's mobile handset market has been witnessing robust sales, with two million sets being sold every month. Last month, the number of people in India having mobile phones were 51 million, whereas fixed line ones were 45 million.