Rampur (Kamrup): The hundred-year-old Britannia Industries Ltd (BIL) on Monday opened its first fully-owned plant in Assam here with initial investment of Rs 200 crore, its largest investment in one plant so far.

The plant, set up on 22 acres in 14 months with an annual production capacity of 60,000 tonnes of biscuits, will give direct employment to 1,000 people, of which 70 per cent are women.

The Rs 10,000-crore company with 80 factories and 50 lakh outlets, turned 100 in March this year. It sells its products in 75 countries.

"This is our largest investment in a single plant and this will cater to markets in the entire Northeast. As we are trying to diversify, we want to start our diversification journey from Assam. We will focus on local markets here at present and will try to foray into markets in South East Asian countries as things progress," the managing director of BIL, Varun Berry, said during the inauguration of the plant here.

Chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal and industry minister Chandra Mohan Patowary inaugurated the plant at Rampur village.

Britannia at present has two joint venture plants at Mangaldoi in Darrang district and at Boragaon in Guwahati. But this is the company's first fully-owned plant in the state.

The plant comes as a boost to the state government's efforts to encourage private investment in the state, which lags in industrialisation because of poor infrastructure and militancy. The state government had invited private industries during its Advantage Assam conclave on February 3 and 4 this year.

"This is a step towards our target set during the investment conclave, when we signed 240 MoUs worth Rs 79,000 crore with private investors. We want to transform Assam into an investment-friendly state to create jobs for local youths," Sonowal said.

Patowary said it was the responsibility of the residents to protect the industry as it will provide jobs to local youths.