India's largest vehicle maker Tata Motors said on Monday it signed a contract with Myanmar Automobile and Diesel Industries to set up a heavy truck plant in the military-ruled country. The new plant would be set up at Magwe, nearly 480 kilometres (300 miles) from Yangon, and will be operational in the last quarter of the financial year ending March 2011, it said in a statement.
Tata Motors, which owns the formerly British brands Jaguar and Land Rover, said the plant would have a capacity of 1,000 vehicles per year, which could be expanded to 5,000 vehicles. No financial details were given, but the plant will be funded by a line of credit from the government of India. Myanmar's military government held talks with an Indian delegation on March 1 in its remote capital Naypyidaw.