New Delhi, July 27: Telcon, the 60:40 joint venture between Tata Motors and Japan’s Hitachi Construction Machinery Company (HCMC), will set up a plant in Bengal to make construction automation equipment.

The facility, which will require an investment of about Rs 250 crore, will come up in Kharagpur and be spread over 60 hectares.

Telcon said construction work for the plant, which will employ about 500 people, will start by December this year, while operations will begin by March 2008. The plant will also have facilities for a vendor park.

“The Kharagpur plant will manufacture backhoe loaders, midi excavators, off-highway dump trucks, wheel loaders and large mining shovels,” the leading construction equipment maker said.

It will also house a full-fledged research and development (R&D) centre. HCMC will actively participate in making the new centre a global R&D hub.

Telcon has also been selected as a source by HCMC for select equipment for international markets.

The new plant, along with the two existing facilities, will help meet both domestic and international needs. Telcon has a manufacturing plant each at Jamshedpur in Jharkhand and at Dharwad in Karnataka.

Telcon has posted a turnover of Rs 1,305 crore in 2005-06, a growth of over 40 per cent over 2004-05, and a profit after tax of Rs 89 crore.

In the quarter ended June 30, 2006, the company has posted a turnover of Rs 370 crore, a growth of over 43 per cent over the corresponding period of the previous year.