China high speed train
China high speed trainReuters

China's rail transportation equipment maker CRRC Corporation Ltd on Saturday announced that it had started operations of its first joint venture plant in India. The total investment is roughly worth $63.4 million (about Rs. 42 crore).

The Chinese entity holds 51 percent share in the joint venture, CRRC Pioneer (India) Electric Co. Ltd, Xinhua reported.

This is the first time that China's largest high-speed train maker is opening a plant in South Asia, in a country that is often regarded as the world's most "comprehensive" rail system. CRRC Corporation's India plant, which is located in Baval in Rewari district of Haryana, would repair and manufacture railway locomotives engines.

This joint venture will be the first of its kind — to set up assembly line of rail transportation equipment — since Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "Made in India" campaign that was launched two years ago.

CRRC's Vice President Yu Weiping said that the new plant would create jobs for Indian citizens and also help initiate tax revenues for local people. This would also enhance infrastructure development, IANS reported.

The new joint venture would boost India's rail system, supply electric transmission to oil drilling, wind-power generation and equipment mining in the South Asian nation.

"Given more than 60,000 kilometres of railways in India, it is far from enough to build a single locomotive engine plant in India. CRRC will build more plants able to produce trains, locomotive traction systems and other key parts in India," Weiping was quoted as saying by Xinhua.

[1 lakh = 100,000 | 1 crore = 10 million | 100 crore = 1 billion]