Hero Honda to set up Rs 2000 cr Haridwar plant

Hero Honda appears close to finalising a plant in the Haridwar industrial unit involving an investment of Rs 2,000 crore.

Senior executives of Hero Honda, including Pawan Munjal and Sunil Munjal, during the weekend visited Haridwar and held talks with the senior government officials about their new unit.

"It is almost final that Hero Honda would be setting up its manufacturing unit for two-wheelers at Haridwar," a top official said. The company had selected 300 acres in Haridwar for this, the sources said.

Two years ago, Hero Honda had held detail talks with the government officials to set up a manufacturing facility at Haridwar but due to certain reasons the proposal could not make any headway.

Besides Hero Honda, Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto and Mahindra and Mahindra are together investing nearly above Rs 3,200 crore in Pant Nagar and Haridwar industrial estates. Some of the ancillaries of these companies such as Neel Metal are also establishing their units.

Tata Motors is expected to invest Rs 2,500 crore in its manufacturing facility at Pant Nagar industrial estate where over 370 companies are setting up their new units with a combined investment of Rs 4,500 crore.

Tata Motors would be producing the Ace trucks at the Pant Nagar facility for which it has already bought 1,000 acres of land from the State Industrial Development Corporation of Uttaranchal Limited (SIDCUL) which is building both Pant Nagar and Haridwar industrial estate.

Officials also did not rule out the possibility of the production of the much talked Rs 1 lakh car of Tata Motors from Pant Nagar.

The Pantnagar industrial estate has so far attracted an investment of Rs 500 to Rs 600 crore from the Bajaj Auto which would establish a manufacturing unit for producing motorbikes. Bajaj Auto is expected to produce 3,000 bikes per day.

Of the 364 companies which have proposed to set up their units in Pant Nagar industrial estate, nearly 227 of them have already got possession of their industrial plots. Nearly 107 industries are under construction, while 20 companies including the Dabur and the Nestle have started production.

Mahindra and Mahindra early this year set up its automotive plant for producing three wheelers at the Integrated Industrial Estate (IIE) in Haridwar and also indicated that it would expand its unit further.

The plant is fifth full-scale automotive plant with a total investment of Rs 70 crore. It includes its ancillary Neel Metal Product Ltd, exclusively set up for M and M to supply cabs, cargo bodies and other sub-assemblies and aggregates.