 "Honda Cars to invest Rs 600 crore in UP, Rajasthan plants")
Honda Cars India Limited will invest almost Rs 600 crore in its two plants at Greater Noida (Uttar Pradesh) and Tapukara (Alwar, Rajasthan) to rev up its production capacity and R&D capabilities.
The Japanese company's cumulative investment in India so far stands at Rs 7,238 crore and the fresh infusion would increase it to around Rs 7,800 crore.
"By the end of this fiscal, additional investment of Rs 500-600 crore would be made to increase production capacity of our Tapukara plant by 60,000 units from 1,20,000 units to 1,80,000 units per annum and to ramp up our R&D at the Greater Noida unit," company's senior vice president Raman Kumar Sharma told Business Standard here.
The Greater Noida plant spread over 150 acres has capacity of 1,20,000 units per annum. About 3-4 years back, the company had also started a rudimentary R&D facility at the plant, which is now being upgraded to a full fledged facility and likely to employ 250-300 people.
In contrast, the Tapukara plant is spread over 437 acres, which provides ample opportunity to the company for capacity expansion vis-à-vis Greater Noida unit.
"With the new R&D facility, Honda aims at achieving greater localisation of material, technology and production. This would also help Honda in exporting components to other countries as well, including Japan," he underlined. The new R&D block is expected to be inaugurated later this month.
Meanwhile, Honda is aiming to touch total dealership count of 300 by the end of this fiscal, up from 255 across 167 cities at present, including 14 dealerships in 10 cities of UP.
Honda's top selling City, Jazz and Amaze models contribute 80 percent to its sales in terms of units.
Honda ranks behind Maruti, Hyundai and Mahindra as the fourth largest four-wheeler company in India trailed by Toyota and Tata Motors.
