However, EECPL Chairman Aloke Mukherjee said that his company was also open to a sell-out of shares to its European partners, in case it took too long for setting up a new joint venture. He also said that under the agreement, a greenfield unit was proposed to be set up in West Bengal. EECPL had already purchased an industrial plot of over three acres in Durgapur which it proposed to utilise for manufacturing air pollution control equipment with the help of this tie-up. “The plan is to set up the joint venture and then a manufacturing hub and also a design hub,” Mr. Mukherjee said, adding that the objective of the venture would be to tap part of the global air pollution control equipment market in which Chinese companies now had a dominant share. Work on the unit is expected to start within 2010 with the first phase getting completed within two years.

Miloslav Svab, Vice-Chairman of ZVVZ- Enven Engineering, said the manufacturing unit would enjoy a 10-15 per cent cost advantage which would help export products competitively. “India is a new market for our company and we will service this market first but exports are planned from third year,” he said.

Mr. Mukherjee said that the investment on this proposed unit could vary between Rs. 25 crore and Rs. 60 crore and some of the product range might be outsourced also. Mr. Svab said that the Czech company's activities were spread out from Brazil to Kazakhstan.