Buoyed by PM Narendra Modi's 'Make in India' initiative, smartphone maker Lava plans to spend Rs 2,615 crore towards setting up two manufacturing plants in the country.

The investment will be made over the next seven years and once they become operational, the units will produce 18 million handsets a month.

"We have put in place a plan to invest Rs 2,615 crore to set up two more manufacturing units in India -- one in the north and the other in South India," Lava International Chairman and MD Hari Om Rai told The Economic Times.

The company plans to invest a part of the "earmarked amount" in research and development, he said.

Currently, Lava has a manufacturing unit in Noida, which has the capacity to make about half a million handsets per month.

"The funds will be deployed over a period of seven years. We are in discussions with various state governments and we should be able to close in on a decision in the next three weeks," said Lava International Chief Manufacturing Officer Sanjeev Agarwal.

The second manufacturing unit of the company is expected to start its operations from 2017, according to Agarwal.

"We already have a unit in Noida and by beginning of 2017, the second one will be operational too. We will take a call on the third one later. Once all the three plants are functional, we expect our total output to be 18 million units a month," Agarwal said.

The New Delhi-based Lava also plans to double its employee base this year.

"We currently have about 7,000 people and we are on track to double this number by March next year. These people will be hired across various roles in manufacturing, R&D, sales and marketing," Rai said.

Giving a boost to Modi's 'Make in India' programme, many handset markets, both domestic and foreign, have announced plans to set up manufacturing units in the country.

Recently, Taiwan's tech giant Foxconn Technology Group had announced plans to create a minimum of 1 million jobs in India by establishing 10-12 manufacturing units in the country by 2020.

Foxconn, the world's largest contract manufacturer, plans to establish data centres and incubators in cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad.

Quanta Computer, Xiaomi, Lenovo have also hinted at manufacturing the electronic devices in India.

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