Even as French carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen claims to be one of the main sponsors of the upcoming Vibrant Gujarat Summit, dubbed as Narendra Modi's pet project, the state government audio-visual on the event does not mention Peugeot as a part of the several auto-giants who have parked their projects in the state.
The audio-visual (AV) titled 'Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit 2013-Beyond Investments, Beyond Gujarat', that tries to position Gujarat as an upcoming automobile hub of the country, mentions automobile companies that have either set up or are in the process of setting up base in Gujarat.
"The presence of a number of automobile giants that has crowned Gujarat as the automobile hub of India", says the AV featuring companies like General Motors, Tata Motors, Ford, and Maruti Suzuki as a part of the Gujarat auto-hub.
Of these, General Motors and Tata Motors have already set up their manufacturing plants at Sanand near Ahmedabad and Halol near Vadodara.
Ford is in the process of setting up a plant at Sanand, while Maruti Suzuki has been allotted land at two locations at Hansalpur near Mehsana. Maruti is yet to start work on its plant, but is expected to do the same within the coming months.
Peugeot too was allotted land near the Tata Motors and Ford sites at Sanand and the company had signed a state support agreement (SSA) with the Gujarat government in September 2011.
The company, which is undergoing financial crisis at its parent operations, has rescheduled its India plans, and has not been able to pay installments for the allotted land. After waiting for one and half years for payments, the state government has recently sold 200 acres of the net 584 acres allotted to the company.
The remaining 384 acres is still allotted to Peugeot if it wishes to put up a plant.
However, sources in the state government have claimed that the remaining land parcel could be sold if there are buyers.
