Hinduja group firm Ashok Leyland, which had last year lowered its investments by Rs 1,200 crore, today said it will ramp up funding plans for the next two years on the back of resurgence in the auto market.
The commercial vehicle maker had last year brought down its capex outlay to Rs 2,000 crore for three years starting 2009-10 fiscal from an earlier announced Rs 3,200 crore.
"The market has revived and now demand is not an issue, but creating capacity is the challenge. Some of the investment that we had cut down, will be brought back," Ashok Leyland Director and Chief Operating Officer Vinod K Dasari told reporters at the Defence Expo here.
The company, which will start commercial operation of its Uttarakhand plant from March, will pump in Rs 300 crore to start the press shop inside the facility, he added.
"We had deferred the construction of the press shop due to slump last year. Now it will be completed next fiscal," he said, adding the company has so far invested Rs 1,200 crore in setting up the Uttarakhand facility that will produce 50,000- 75,000 units initially.
Without giving details, he said renewal of investments would also depend on requirements from its JV partners such as Japanese giant Nissan and US-based John Deere.
Ashok Leyland has a joint venture with Nissan that envisages an investment of Rs 2,300 crore for producing LCVs, powertrains and technology development. The JV would now launch CVs by 2011 from Ashok Leyland's Hosur plant, instead of a new facility.