)
According to sources close to the development, the company is likely to begin work at the Hansalpur site in end-May or June. The company has already sought for water connection at the site, and the Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) has floated tenders for the same. Arrangements are likely to be in place very soon.
R C Bhargava, chairman, Maruti Suzuki India, said, "A decision will be taken during the board meeting in April." He did not wish to give a specific time for the start of construction. However, at least two senior Maruti officials confirmed that work is likely to begin during the first quarter of the next fiscal.
Maruti's Gujarat plant is expected to go onstream during 2015-16. The company has taken up a second land parcel (around 600 acres) near the original site at Hansalpur (around 640 acres) and now plans to have a net installed capacity of around 1.5 million vehicles per annum in Gujarat in a phased manner.
Maruti is planning to have three plants or assembly lines at the first site, with a combined installed capacity of 750,000 units per annum. "After we exhaust capacity at the first site, we will move on to the second site, which has been privately acquired by us," Bhargava had earlier told Business Standard.
The company plans to focus on exports from the Gujarat plant thanks to its proximity to the Mundra Port where Maruti has a dedicated terminal. This will enable the company to save around Rs 5,000-6,000 per car. While the company's domestic sales dipped by around 9.01 per cent in February to 97,955 units, exports actually grew by 2.8 per cent to 11,612 units.
Around three to four vendors who have joint ventures with Maruti ( like Jai Bharat Maruti, a JBM Group company which makes seat belts for Maruti, Caparo Maruti, and Futaba which makes exhaust systems) would be included at the Hansalpur plant site, while others would be setting up their facilities at separate auto parks coming up in the region.
