To have installed car manufacturing capacity of 655,000 by 2014.
Come 2014 and what used to be a small 'town' on the outskirts of Ahmedabad - Sanand - will be a name to reckon with in automobile industry in India. With the entry of a vehicle manufacturing plant by PSA Peugeot Citroen in Sanand, the erstwhile sleepy town has been catapulted to the league of India's prominent auto hubs such as Pune in Maharashtra and Sriperumbudur in Chennai.
French car-maker PSA Peugeot Citroen said it will create 30,000 direct and indirect jobs in Gujarat after it starts production in 2014. The company signed an agreement with Gujarat goverment on Thursday to produce 1.65 lakh cars per annum from the Sanand facility proposed to come over 600 acres.
Peugot Citroen has 16 manufacturing facilities worldwide and the Rs 4,000-crore Gujarat plant will be its 17th. The company will export 25% of the production from the Sanand facility. Peugeot is the third auto MNC to invest in Sanand after Tata Motors and Ford Motors in the last three years.
Facilities of the three new entrants are adjacent to each other in the Northkotpura area which was under Anand Agriculture University till October 2008. A release said: "The project will give direct employment to 5,000 people. Additional jobs will be created by supplier park adjacent to the site to provide the company with necessary parts and services." The government said, 25,000 jobs will be created in the supplier park coming up adjacent to the main plant.
Philippe Varin, chairman of the managing board, PSA Peugeot Citroën attributes three reasons for choosing Sanand for its plant. "Availability of greenfield land and ready infrastructure are couple of reasons for us to choose Sanand for the plant. Moreover, it is the enterprising nature of Gujarat that attracted us to the state," said Varin while announcing the company's foray into Sanand.
"Gujarat has pro-active administration. With respect to auto industry, Gujarat also enjoys a huge supplier base which makes it one of the emerging auto hub in India after Chennai, Talegaon and Chakan in Pune. After north India, western India has the second largest supplier base with respect to auto industry," said P Balendran, Vice President, General Motors India.
What's more, going forward, if Maruti follows the foot-steps of global auto giants, then days are not far that Gujarat would command car manufacturing industry in the country with a staggering installed capacities of close to over 1.7 million cars per annum. This would pip Tamil Nadu (TN)'s numero-uno status for car manufacturing in India and put Gujarat in the distinct club of top 10 centers in the world for car manufacturing.
Meanwhile, as per the figures provided by Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), India's total passenger vehicle production stood at 2,987,296 units for for 2010-11
To have a look at Peugeot hxi Concept car, click the link below :
http://www.wheelomania.com/2011/08/peugeot-showcases-hxi-concept-car.html
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