Osamu Suzuki, Chairman, Suzuki Motor Corporation (SMC) expressed his commitment to the Indian soil by swearing more investments regarding the expansion of the company's operations in India.
Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL), the Joint Venture (JV) between Maruti and SMC, has revealed plans for setting up of a Rs. 2,600 crore project for a new diesel plant, along with a new Research and Development (R&D) facility in Haryana by 2014. MSIL is also looking to enhance production output at its Gurgaon and Manesar units also by 2014. Recently, a new development has come up that there's a new plant by MSIL in the pipeline, to be built at a cost of Rs. 4,000 crore in Gujarat.
Besides, the enormous expansive plans Osamu Suzuki has also insisted MSIL to find out the real cause for the highly notorious incident at its Manesar facility in July this year. The Chairman has sought the help of Haryana government after feeling deeply saddened by the much publicised dispute between the workers and management at Manesar plant. He expressed his despair during a news conference and said, “I asked Maruti Suzuki management -- isn't it taking it too long to find out the reasons? 12 executive members of the union have been arrested...it is impossible for Maruti Suzuki to get in touch with them. We have no information”.
Osamu has arrived in India for a week long visit (his longest ever) with some genuine tasks at hand – to re-establish the government and public's faith in the enterprise, besides restoring normalcy among the labour force and management staff at Manesar plant.
Since his arrival on August 22, the Chairman has had a busy itinerary at his disposal. After meetings with the Chief Ministers Narendra Modi and Bhupinder Singh Hooda of Gujarat and Haryana respectively, the Chairman Suzuki said, “In any case Japan's Suzuki has no plans to withdraw from India nor to stop production at Manesar. We are here for the last 30 years”.
Reportedly, the Chairman has personally appealed the Haryana Chief Minister to investigate the real cause behind the Manesar incident and has also announced that it could take up to six months to determine the complete chain of causality that resulted in the despicable incident of July 18th this year.
Pinpointing his distress at the violence and emphasising his concern, Suzuki said, “We are internally trying to find out if workers were dissatisfied. In case we find any such problem, we will take counter measures”.
R C Bhargava, Chairman, MSIL, revealed that the company is in advanced talks with the Haryana government regarding the purchase of land at Daruhera and on Pataudi road for building homes for Manesar workers.
