According to Mr Narender Surana, STL's managing director, the company will manufacture raw material like quark pre-form and other allied optical fibre products for the optical fibre cables industry. The company has tied up with KobelCo and Tomen Corporation of Japan recently for technical know-how and has placed Rs 11 crore worth of orders in terms of equipment. Mr Surana said the project is funded by loans from ICICI and internal accruals. The project will be commissioned in eight months' time, he added.

The company has decided to move to Goa due to the duty relief and other tax benefits offered by the state. Meanwhile the privatisation of telecom and the Internet boom are the main reasons for setting up a new plant, he added. He said the company has also tied up with Wuhan Research Institute of Post and Telecom (WRI) of China during the last month to market the latter's products such as amplifiers, variable alternators and power metres.

Further STL has also tied up with Hong Kong and Chinese companies in December 2000 to sell optical fibre and cable in those countries. The company has received orders worth Rs 5 crore , Mr Surana said.