Himachal Futuristic Communications Ltd. is setting up an optical fibre unit near Hyderabad with an investment of around ₹250 crore.
It will be one of the few such in the country, making principal raw material for optical cables, and is expected to commence production in April 2019.
On Monday, Telangana Minister for Industries and IT K.T. Rama Rao laid the foundation for the unit that would serve as a backward integration project for HFCL’s optical fibre cable plants in Goa and Chennai.
Group chairman Mahendra Nahata said it was the first such facility for HFCL and will produce 6.4 million fibre kilometres per annum.
Given the demand for optical fibre, the company is considering scaling the capacity to 8 million fibre km, by April, with an additional investment of ₹50 crore.
“Our own fibre demand is about 15 million fibre km,” Mr. Nahata added, pointing out that in-house production would reduce raw material expenditure by 25-30% and enhance profitability.
‘₹700-cr. plans’
Over time, HFCL would consider doubling the capacity and also get into manufacturing of preform, a further backward integration project, Mr. Nahata said, estimating the future investment to be ₹700 crore.
On the optical fibre market in India, he said the demand was more than 40 million fibre km. Though manufacturing capacity for 40-50 million fibre km is available, a lot of that gets exported.
He estimated India’s optical fibre imports to be about 10-15 million fibre km. Drivers for demand growth, Mr. Nahata said, were 4G and 5G network technology, with the latter requiring four times more fibre that the fomer, while the other triggers included FTTH, more data centres coming up and the BharatNet project of the government.
Defence equipment
HFCL also plans to scale up defence equipment manufacturing — it has a plant in Solan — following its participation in the RFP for supplying mini UAVs and night vision devices to the Indian Army.
Addressing the gathering, the Minister said the investments proposed by HFCL, in phases, would be in the range of ₹1,000-₹1,100 crore and about 4,000 direct and indirect job opportunities were to be created.
The State government, through the Telangana Academy for Skill and Knowledge (TASK) would train the local youth to become eligible for jobs, Mr. Rao said, urging HFCL to give preference to local talent.
Highlighting that Telangana ranked first in the Ease of Doing Business Index, Mr. Rao said that the State would be keen on supporting HFCL in its expansion programmes.
The Minister added that the State was also implementing a project to connect all its 10 million homes by a high-speed 15 Mbps broadband connection before the end of the year.
