JCB has recently opened its newest factory in India with an investment of £100 million (nearly `9.95 billion), with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson inaugurating the facility. The new factory is located in Vadodara near the port city of Surat on the West Coast of India and will fabricate parts for global production lines. Joining the British Minister was Lord Bamford, Chairman, JCB, who had led the company’s expansion in India in the late 1970s, including the opening of its first factory in Ballabgarh, near Delhi. Today, JCB has six factories in India at locations including Jaipur and Pune.Lord Bamford has said, “In its first year of full production, JCB India manufactured just 39 machines and by next year will have made a total of half a million. This country is now a major engineering power and being here has transformed our business. It has been a fabulous success, with so much more potential for growth. Such progress has only been possible by continued investment and the opening of our new Gujarat facility is an important step in growing our business here and around the world.”India has been JCB’s biggest market every year since 2007 and one in two of every construction machines sold in India today is made by JCB. The new facility, which is on a 47-acre site, will be capable of processing 85,000 tonne of steel annually. “This new facility will create around 1,200 direct jobs when complete and thousands more in the supply chain,” Deepak Shetty, Managing Director and CEO, JCB India, has said. “It will also be a benchmark in the industry on gender diversity and modern technologies in laser cutting, welding and machining. Vadodara is a strategic location for JCB India given its proximity to ports and availability of raw materials and skilled talent.” The new plant will be a gender diverse manufacturing facility employing 50 per cent women. JCB India has also set up a skills centre at the plant where young professionals will be trained to work in diverse job roles in manufacturing.