Bharat Forge [Get Quote] on Saturday said the company would be investing over Rs 400 crore (Rs 4 billion) for a greenfield facility in India and set up development centres in foreign locations for product design and development.

"We will be completing our current phase of expansion by March 2006 and will go in for a greenfield facility about an year after that, which will involve investments of over Rs 400 crore," Bharat Forge executive director Amit B Kalyani said at the Auto Expo in New Delhi.

He said the new facility will be for larger products, sub-assemblies and value-added products.

The company is currently in the process of doubling forging capacity at its Pune unit to 2,50,000 tonnes which is likely to be completed by March 2006. "We have invested about Rs 600 crore (Rs 6 billion) at Pune," Bharat Forge chairman Baba Kalyani said.

The company, which has facilites in Europe, North America and China, expects to have a total capacity of 6,00,000 tonnes post the expansion.

The company chairman said Bharat Forge was moving up the value chain and getting into product development with customers. "Now we are making attempts to move from contract manufacturing to becoming a full-fledged service supplier. We are getting into co-development with our customers and do testing of prototypes, including fatigue testing," Kalyani said.