Maruti Suzuki to Open Third Plant near Ahmedabad

Maruti Suzuki was mulling opening their third facility in Gujarat. According to recent reports, the manufacturer has reportedly gone ahead with this idea. They will soon be opening a manufacturing facility near Sanand in the district Ahmedabad. However, no official reports have been released either from Maruti or the State Government.

Sources say that the government is not yet able to deny or confirm these reports. Officials from French car manufacturer, Peugeot, have also reportedly been to Gujarat, apparently looking for a place to open to their new plant.

Maruti is supposed to allot 500 acre plot near Sanand. This facility would be the first facility of the company outside of Haryana, where they have two assembly plants in Manesar and Gurgaon. These plants together have a production capacity of 12 lakh cars per annum. In 2008, the Gujarat State Government had announced that 1,100 acres would be allotted to Tata Motors.

The company’s PDI facility, located at Mundra Port, has a capacity of handling around 2 lakh cars per annum. They mainly export those vehicles which have been assembled at their Haryana plants. They are also considering transporting cars to southern States through coastal shipping, which would be more economical, in comparison to road transport.

Their manufacturing plant in Gujarat also makes sense, as the setting up of this plant will make the Maruti more competitively priced in the market. The Gujarat government has been marketing the idea of Gujarat being a hub for automobile manufacturers like the state of Tamil Nadu, which has manufacturers like Reynolds-Nissan, Mitsubishi, Ashok Leyland and Ford operating their facilities around Chennai.

Gujarat also has a robust manufacturing base with GM operating their LCV plant close to Vadodara. The Bombardier Transportation also has their plant located in Gujarat, from where they supply bogies to the New Delhi Metro.