Lenovo mulls investing over Rs 2,000 cr in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry

Chinese multinational technology company Lenovo is in talks with the governments of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry to set up a manufacturing facility in the region.

While sources in Tamil Nadu government have said that the company is talks to take over Motorola’s manufacturing unit in Chennai, with an investment of around Rs 250 crore, Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy said Lenovo has evinced interest in setting up a mobile phone manufacturing facility with an investment of around Rs 2,000 crore in the Union Territory.

“Lenovo is constantly evaluating and exploring options for manufacturing in India”, said a Lenovo spokesperson.

Lenovo manufactures its personal computers and laptops in the Union territory of Puducherry, about 150 km from Chennai. “We’re manufacturing here because it is cost-competitive,” a Lenovo official had said last year.

On Thursday, Narayanasamy announced in the Assembly in Puducherry that the company has expressed interest in setting up a smartphone manufacturing unit in the Union Territory with an investment of Rs 2,000 crore. The proposed facility would also provide employment to around 2,000 people.

He said that a team of officials from the company has visited Puducherry and expressed their interest to set up the facility.

According to sources from Tamil Nadu government, the company is in talks to take over Motorola’s facility in Chennai. Lenovo had earlier acquired Motorola from Google, in order to start manufacturing facility.

The plans are to revive Motorola’s phone assembling and packaging unit at Sunguvarchatram near Chennai. The facility, located a few kilometres from the Nokia facility, has been lying idle since 2013. Lenovo got possession of the plant after it acquired Motorola from Google in 2014.

The topic comes at a time when various states are wooing smartphone manufacturers including the contract manufacturing major Foxconn, to set up their manufacturing facility in their State. Tamil Nadu is also in talks with Foxconn to revive the mobile phone manufacturing facility of Nokia India in Sriperumbudur, near Chennai.