French nuclear giant Areva announced plans on March 30 to expand its India operations. The company will start operations this week at eight new factories in India.

On Monday, the company started off its four factories at Kotambi near Vadodara in Gujarat.

Speaking on this, Philippe Guillemot (Chairman & CEO, AREVA T&D) said, “We have India’s largest transformer testing facility in Vadodara: a plant capable of locally delivering highly advanced ultra high voltage AC and DC transformers as well as critical medium voltage equipment. With this investment, we expect over 1,000 direct and some 3,000 indirect jobs over the next four years.”

It is learnt that Areva T&D has invested nearly Rs 600 crore to set up the four factories at Vadodara. These factories will produce power and distribution transformers and other power equipment.

Moreover, the French MNC has decided to come up with an investment of over Rs 950 crore for its new facilities across the country. The other four factories which the company will open this week are coming up at Hosur (Karnataka) and Padappai (Tamil Nadu).

Areva's activities cover the full nuclear cycle, from uranium mining and enrichment to nuclear reactors and spent nuclear fuel recycling. The company is looking to cash on the rising demand of electricity in India. At present, the company employs over 4,600 workers at 16 factories in India.