Chinese firms eye big potential in India

The Chinese and Indian economies are highly complementary, he added, but at the moment, the two countries' relationship problems are hindering economic cooperation.

SUCG's Lu said that his company is barely making any money in India, but has chosen to stay here because of the market's alluring potential. Chinese companies such as SUCG have huge potential for development in India as long as China and India improve their relations.

"We are hanging in there and hoping for the best. We have really high hopes for the premier's visit this time," Lu said.

Longjian Road and Bridge Ltd Co is another Chinese company that is hanging on in India. The Shanghai-listed company is the only Chinese road construction company left in India.

Longjian's fellow competitors, including Sinohydro, China Gezhouba (Group) Corp and China National Coal Group Corp, all pulled out of India within a few years.

Longjian is currently building part of the Pink City Expressway, which will link the economic boomtown of Gurgaon with resource-rich Jaipur. The patch that Longjian is contracted for is 34 km long. This is the fourth year and Longjian is still building the project that could have been finished in China in two years.

The best-case scenario is for construction to be finished by year-end, but there is no assurance. In 2009, all of Longjian's Chinese employees except for Liu were sent back to China by Indian immigration authorities. The incident delayed Longjian's construction by a year. Liu later managed to get his workers back thanks to his personal relations with Indian government officials, but he said he is not sure if he has the energy to deal with another such crackdown.

Liu said he has to deal with 14 different local government agencies, each having the power to single-handedly halt Longjian's construction. The agencies, he said, are watching Chinese companies with increased attention.