Gainwell Engineering on Monday said that it will invest around Rs 500 crore in Bengal to set up a greenfield manufacturing unit at Panagarh, having entered into a technology licensing agreement for underground mining equipment manufacturing with global firm Caterpillar.

Gainwell Engineering is a manufacturing venture of Gainwell Commosales Private Limited (formerly Tractors India Private Limited).

The plant will create employment opportunity for 250 technicians and the company will make select models of continuous miners, face haulers, roof support carriers, scoops/ multi utility vehicles, feeder breakers and highwall miner under Gainwell brand.

December deadline

The company’s chairman and managing director Sunil Kumar Chaturvedi said the plant is expected to be completed by December and the company has already started receiving orders from global customers. In addition to India, China, South East Asia, Australia, Russia and US are among the geographies where the company is expecting demand to come from.

“Internally we have projected the manufacturing company (Gainwell Engineering) will reach a topline of Rs 1,000 crore by around 2025 and 80 per cent of the business will be from export,” said Chaturvedi.

“With the acquisition of the IP licence from Caterpillar, our main priority at this stage will be to ensure that our customers experience a seamless transition as we continue to deliver the range of innovative products and exceptional support they have come to expect from Caterpillar,” said Chaturvedi.

“We are pleased to transition the medium and high seam underground room and pillar equipment, as well as the aftermarket licensing, to Gainwell Engineering.

“Gainwell will invest in a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in India and supply the products globally,” said Denise Johnson, group president, resource industries, Caterpillar.