Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL), the subsidiary of Japanese automaker Suzuki Motor Corporation, expressed its consent upon purchase of real estate near Mehsana by signing State Support Agreement (SSA) with the Gujarat Government. The new property purchased by the company will be utilised to set-up a state-of-the-art production facility. The contract between the two was signed by Managing Director and CEO of MSIL Shinzo Nakanishi and Maheshwar Sahu, Principal Secretary (Industry and Mines) of Gujarat Government. The agreement was signed in honourable presence of Gujarat’s Chief Minister, Narendra Modi.
The new production unit of MSIL will feature some of the advanced features mentioned below:
| Initial annual capacity | 250,000* units in a phased manner | Future capacity expansion to be based on market condition |
| Expected Commissioning | By 2015-16 * | |
| Expected Investment | Rs. 4,000 Crores* in 1stphase | For land & construction of plant |
*Subject to Board’s approval of MSIL
The new manufacturing plant set-up by the company will be designed as a comprehensive production plant. Gujarat Government has provided a sprawling area of over 700 acres to Maruti Suzuki for carrying its production operations. The investment made by MSIL is in lieu of company’s long term business view, wherein the company is focussing to remain parallel with increasing demand of the local market. In the light of increasing demand of Maruti Suzuki’s vehicles, the new unit will be put under the belt of company’s existing production plants identical to Gurgaon plant and Manesar plant.
In the current scenario, the production acquired from MSIL’s Gurgaon andManesar plant (includingManesar C plant) stands at 17.5 lacs, whereas the Gujarat unit will have the potential to deliver 2.5 lacs unit by 2015-2016 (subject to Maruti Suzuki’s Board Approval). These figures indicate that the production potential of MSIL’s new unit will surge the company’s cumulative production to 2 million units by 2015-2016.
Reportedly, the Gujarat plant of MSIL will generate employment for more than 2000 individuals, whereas the supplier park and ancillary units in the surrounding area will add to the numbers of job opportunities. Besides the company itself, its vendors and components suppliers are also anticipated to show their interest in investment at matching levels of new plant.
MSIL’s new unit will be located around 100 km away from the Ahmedabad and around 300 km away from Mundra port which will assist the exports initiatives of Maruti Suzuki. Along with this plant, the company will continue expanding its production capacity at Manesar unit through setting-up a third assembly line (Manesar C plant). It is expected that the operations of this assembly line will start by mid 2013-2014 and will have a production capacity of 2.5 lacs units.
