Celkon opens mobile manufacturing unit in Telangana

Handsets maker Celkon Mobiles on Friday inaugurated its manufacturing facility in Telangana, set up with an investment of Rs 200 crore.

Currently, the unit has a capacity to produce two lakh handsets per month, which will be increased to five lakh units in next three months. "We will be investing Rs 200 crore in the facility in the first phase.

Currently, four production lines are used to produce about two lakh handsets a month," Celkon Mobiles Executive Director Murali Retineni told PTI.

He added that work is going on for eight more production lines, which will be operational in three months, and five lakh handsets will be produced at the facility. Retineni said going forward, the company plans to shift its entire production to the country.

"As of now, feature phones, entry-level and mid-level smartphones will be produced at the facility but going forward, we plan to produce all phones here," he added.

The company currently sells around seven lakh handsets in a month. The manufacturing unit, situated in Medchal, Telangana, is spread across 30,000 sq ft.

Additionally, the facility will also contain a 10,000 sq ft warehouse for raw material and a 5,000 sq ft warehouse for finished products, the company said.

Around 60 percent of the mobile phones manufactured in the facility, which is ISO certified, will comprise of feature phones and the rest will be smartphones. The unit will employ 500 people consisting of trained and skilled technicians.

"We are elated to be amongst the first few smartphone players starting our manufacturing operations in India.

We envision the country to become a hub for manufacturing cutting edge devices and have been actively pursuing the cause for the last few years," Celkon Mobiles Chairman and Managing Director Y Guru said.