With the festival season drawing close, Bajaj Auto is all set for another expansion at its Pantnagar facility in October with an investment of Rs 75 crore.
The company officials said the production at the Pantnagar unit was being ramped up to 1,800,000 units from 1,200,000 units per year in view of the heavy boom in the auto market. “We are carrying out the expansion which we hope to complete by October,” said an official.
The company would produce a record 1,200,000 units this month from its 66 acre facility which is currently running at full capacity.
Last year also, the company had carried out a sizeable expansion, scaling up the production from 600,000 units to 1,200,000 units.
Although there is a strong possibility that the company may introduce new models, company officials remained tightlipped. “Such possibility always remains,” said one of them.
The company is currently producing two variants of each of its top models — Platina and Discover — from the Pantnagar unit.
Like Hero Honda and other auto companies, which are taking considerable benefits from a slew of tax incentives under the special industrial package, Bajaj Auto is also scaling up the production at its unit in Pantnagar in order to take the full advantage of the tax sops which include a 10 year long 100 per cent excise rebate. The company had initially invested Rs 230 crore at the Pantnagar unit where the production began in 2007.
