Maruti Suzuki,India’s largest car maker plans to enter Gujarat for the first time and is looking to step out of its home state – Haryana in order to meet the targets set by its parent in Japan.The Gujarat plant of Maruti will initially have a production capacity of 10 lakh units per annum which will be doubled in the second phase depending on the global demand.
The company said that it, along with vendors, could invest up to Rs. 12,000 crore in Gujarat as it looks to produce around 20 lakh units in the long run in the state.
Regarding this issue,the company’s Chairman,Mr.R.C Bhargava quoted that MSI is looking at a phased manner of starting car production in the state.First phase of production would be of capacity of one million cars, which would take approximately five years to install. At current cost, that would entail an investment of Rs. 6,000 crore. In the second phase, if there is justification of another expansion we will do another one million cars with corresponding investment along with that that we will get other vendors suppliers to come here and their investment would also be Rs. 6000 crore.
Mr.Bhargava appreciated the “very positive approach” of Mr. Modi and the State government towards the project and said his company too was “very positive” about setting up the unit in Gujarat.
He also said like in Haryana, Maruti also proposed to start skill development centres at the project site to upgrade the skills of the local people so that they could be given top priority in jobs.
Bhargava said another main reason for exploring Gujarat as an option is due to its proximity to the Mundra port that will help save logistics cost while exporting.If the Gujarat plant was finalised for Maruti, then it will be the third car manufacturer to have units in Gujarat after General Motors.