Chinese telecom equipment vendor Huawei Technologies will invest 100 million dollar in India on its R&D centre in Bangalore and set up a manufacturing facility in India as and when approval for the same comes.

"We will invest 100 million dollar for expansion of Indian operations, which will include 60 million dollar for our plans to set up a manufacturing plant in India for which we have applied for approval to make telecom equipment and 40 million dollar on expanding the Bangalore R&D centre," Fu Jun, global spokesperson for Huawei Technologies told PTI here.

He said the Banaglore R&D centre, which is the second largest centre outside Shenzen, currently has 1,200 profressionals and will touch 2,000 by the ned of 2007. The centre is working on Next geneartion Networks, broadband, optical and 3G equipments and is expected to focus on customisation of equipment.

Jun said the company is aware of the fact that to bid for BSNL contracts, it needs to set up a manufacturing base locally and it has sought government approval for the same.

The privately-held 8 billion dollar Huawei is bullish on India.

Last year, Huawei ran into rough weather with BSNL over a CDMA contract from which it backed out after bidding the lowest. BSNL issued showcause notice to Huawei over the failed delivery of CDMA equipment for its rural project, but fell short of blacklisting the company from bidding in any of the future contracts. Jun said as far as HFCL is concerned which was Huawei partner for the failed CDMA project, its tie-up with the company stays.

Huawei has been operating in India for the last eight years and has invested over 100 million dollar. It has Reliance Communications Ventures (formerly Reliance Infocomm) and Tata Teleservices as customers on CDMA front.