State-run engineering firm BHEL on Monday said it has invited expression of interest from global original equipment manufacturing (OEM) firms to leverage its facilities as well as capabilities and to shift their production base to India amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

There are a large number of OEM firms who intend to shift their manufacturing base from China to other countries after the COVID-19 outbreak, said an industry expert adding that India must leverage its capabilities to facilitate those.

"In order to further promote Make in India and support international companies for setting up manufacturing in India, BHEL has floated an Expression of Interest (EOI) inviting global companies to partner with it and leverage its facilities and capabilities for setting up manufacturing base in the country," a BHEL statement said.

According to the statement, the ongoing economic disruption across the world, due to COVID-19 has highlighted the dangers of manufacturing activities being concentrated in a single location and the need for diversification of supply chains and manufacturing.

This has thrown up a huge opportunity for India - one of the fastest growing economies of the world and an attractive investment destination which offers strong democratic governance, a well-established judicial system, a young workforce, one of the largest domestic markets and favourable investment policies, it added.

BHEL has 16 manufacturing facilities spread across the country with substantial land bank and an extensive built up industrial/ commercial and residential spaces.

Its manpower strength of about 34,000 includes 9,000 engineers with qualifications and experience in cutting-edge technologies, it said.

The company has 16 Centres of Excellence (CoEs) in varied areas such as computational fluid dynamics, intelligent machines and robotics, machine dynamics, nano technology, power electronics, ultra high voltage, advanced transmission, control and instrumentation, surface engineering, coal research, advance fabrication technology, etc and five specialised research centers - welding Research, ceramic research, electric traction, pollution control etc.

It has ongoing technology partnerships with some of the major global manufacturing and engineering companies as well as relationships with leading national laboratories and institutions.

These facilities & capabilities along with its tie ups put BHEL in a strong position to support any international company, in setting up a base in India and taking forward the vision under Make in India, the company said. PTI KKS

First Published:May 4, 2020 2:25 PM IST