Charging up Telangana

Hyderabad: Amara Raja Batteries Limited (ARBL), one of the leading industrial and automotive battery majors in India, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Government of Telangana to setup state-of-the-art research and manufacturing facilities for lithium-ion battery-making in Telangana with an investment of over Rs 9,500 crore over the next 10 years.

After necessary approvals, the company will establish a lithium-ion battery Gigafactory with ultimate capacity up to 16 GWh and a battery pack assembly unit up to 5 GWh at the Energy Park being developed by Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (TSIIC) at Divitipalle village in Mahbubnagar district, and an R&D facility in Shamshabad area near Hyderabad Airport.With this, the company will be creating more than 4,500 job opportunities in this region.

ARBL Chairman & Managing Director Jayadev Gallamade this announcement in the presence of Telangana IT and Industries Minister K T Rama Rao, Principal Secretary - IT & Industries Jayesh Ranjan and other dignitaries from the industry. On the occasion, KTR said, "Telangana has been a frontrunner in adopting sustainability and clean energy, while we remain focussed on making India self-reliant. Today, Amara Raja Group's announcement to set up their lithium-ion cell manufacturing plant with Rs 9,500-crore investment further validates state's commitment towards clean energy and electric mobility."

"This is not only Amara Raja's largest investment till date, but it is also India's largest investment in advanced cell chemistry so far. Telangana has been working on developing essential infrastructure, improving quality of living, increasing per capita and creating talented workforce. That is now allowing the state to attract large scale investments in the new and emerging technologies," he added. The minister was confident that this project will act as a catalyst and has the potential to spur development of an EV (electric vehicle) and ACC (Advanced Cell Chemistry) ecosystem in Telangana, thus creating a large scale manufacturing hub, creating many direct and indirect jobs. The state is pursuing a comprehensive strategy to bring manufacturing of various components of the ecosystem. KTR further said, "With progressive EV adoption policy and our ability to give round-the-clock electricity, we aim to become the most electrified State in mobility. I appreciate Amara Raja's commitment towards skilling local manpower and recruiting them. This will immensely benefit the local youth. The company's foray into ACC manufacturing is need of the hour to make India self-reliant in the EV ecosystem."

"We will be investing Rs 2,000 crore in the first phase of the gigafactory with a capacity up to 2 GWh and it will create 2,000 job opportunities in three years."

"We will use internal accruals to meet the fund requirements in the initial phase. Being a progressive, tech advanced and zero-debt company, we keep adding funds as and when required over 4-5 phases," said Y Delli Babu is Chief Financial Officer of ARBL.

The initial facilities would include a first-of-its kind advanced energy research and innovation center - Amara Raja E-hub with an investment of Rs 225 crore. This facility will be equipped with advanced laboratories and testing infrastructure for material research, prototyping, product life cycle analysis and Proof of Concept demonstration, said VikramadithyaGourineni, ED of New Energy Business at ARBL.

He informed, "Amara Raja has been working on Li-ion cell chemistries specifically suited for Indian subcontinent conditions, and already supplies lithium battery packs and chargers to some 2 and 3-wheeler OEMs. Our ambition is to develop a robust Indian ecosystem with R&D, incubation, testing, and manufacturing – a giga corridor for emerging technologies in energy and mobility."