Leading car makers to invest Rs 115 bn in Maharashtra

Some of the leading car manufacturers, such as Tata Motors Ltd, Mahindra & Mahindra, Bajaj Auto Ltd, German carmaker Volkswagen AG, etc have agreed to invest a total of Rs 115 billion ($1.9 billion) to expand their manufacturing capacity in Maharashtra. The investments would be made under the state government's industrial project policy, which was initiated in 2005 to boost investment in the manufacturing sector.
 
Tata Motors, India's top automaker by revenue, and Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, the country's largest utility vehicle maker, agreed to invest Rs 40 billion each, according to a statement issued by the Maharashtra government on Thursday.
 
Bajaj Auto Ltd said it plans to invest Rs 20 billion, while Volkswagen agreed to invest Rs 15 billion.
 
Mahindra's investment, expected to be made over seven years, will increase the capacity of its plant in Chakan, located 85 miles southeast of India's financial capital Mumbai, to 4.5 million vehicles from 3.2 million.
 
This will take the total investment in the plant, where it manufactures trucks and buses, to 80 billion rupees, Mahindra said in a separate statement to the stock exchange.
 
($1 = 60.4950 Indian rupee)