Blue Star Climatech Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Blue Star Limited, has commenced construction work of its facility for producing air-conditioners and elements at Sri City in Andhra Pradesh. This initiative is part of the government’s recently declared Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for boosting domestic production in the AC manufacturing sector. B Thiagarajan, Managing Director of Blue Star, performed the foundation laying ceremony in the presence of C P Mukundan Menon, President and Chief Operating Officer and Ravindra Sannareddy, Founder and Managing Director, Sri City. Thiagarajan, while addressing the gathering said that installing this facility is a part of their strategic initiative to significantly increase their production operations by investing in world-class, Industry 4.0 manufacturing facilities. Aligning themselves to the Make in India initiative and leveraging the PLI scheme, they aim to produce specific elements in-house at this plant. Ravindra Sannareddy told the media that Blue Star’s choice to place their production facility in Sri City, which will be their 6th unit in the nation and the very first in Southern India, repeats the fact that it is an attractive place for the consumer durables industry as well. He said that with the entry of Blue Star and other AC&R majors like Daikin, a new ecosystem focused on the white goods sector is developing, and this would, in turn, create thousands of employment opportunities for the local youth. The facility, which will be built in 20 acres of land in the Domestic Tariff Zone (DTZ), will likely be launched by October 2022. The facility will be built in phases at a total investment of about Rs 540 crore. The total capacity of the facility will be nearly 1.2 million units. The plant will align with the southern markets and would be developed as an environmentally responsible and ecologically sustainable facility. Image SourceAlso read: Govt launches green room air conditioners on World Environment Day Also read: Centre may ease PLI scheme for AC and LED manufacturing firms