Staffordshire-based JCB is to invest £65 million in a new plant in India, as the company prepares to celebrate 40 years of manufacturing in that country.

The new factory will be located in Vadodara near the port city of Surat (in the state of Gujarat) on the West Coast of India and will fabricate parts for global production lines, as the company prepares to meet increased demand.

At the end of last month, JCB chairman Lord Bamford laid the foundation stone for the new plant, which will be JCB’s sixth in India — a country that has been JCB’s biggest single market since 2007.

The announcement follows the start of work on a new £50 million factory to build cabs for JCB machines in Uttoxeter; this will be completed later this year.

Lord Bamford said (www.jcb.com): “With major investment in manufacturing capacity in the UK and India, we are very well placed to grow our business in the future.

"This year, we celebrate 40 years of JCB India, and our success over those four decades is down to our continual investment. It’s fitting that we mark the 40th anniversary with an investment in a factory that will give us enormous manufacturing capacity.”

JCB India already has factories in Delhi, Pune and Jaipur. The new facility on a 44-acre site will house the most modern laser cutting, welding and machining technology. It will be capable of processing 85,000 tonnes of steel annually.