Thaindian News

Chennai, Feb 10 (IANS) The setting up of production facilities by a global car maker, Indian auto group Mahindra and Mahindra and an Indonesian group is set to make the Chennai region the world’s largest automobile manufacturing centre with a total capacity of 2.2 million vehicles per annum, Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister M.K. Stalin said Thursday.”We are in the final stage of discussions with a global automobile major for setting up a car plant near Chennai with a capacity of 300,000 cars with an investment of Rs.4,000 crore,” said Stalin inaugurating the Rs.2,100 crore Apollo Tyres factory near here.

He said Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) has decided to set up its 150,000 units per annum sports utility vehicle plant near here at an outlay Rs.1,800 crore.

Government officials told IANS the M&M plant is set to come at Cheyyur near here.

According to Stalin, a tractor plant and a tractor component plant is being set up by Sundareshwarar Alloys and Steels, a part of Indonesian group Texmaco, at Gangaikondan at an outlay of Rs.1,000 crore.

“With these Chennai region alone will have the production capacity of nearly 22 lakh (2.2 million) vehicles per annum making Chennai the No.1 automobile manufacturing centre in the world,” Stalin said.

He said: “In tyre manufacturing also, we have succeeded in attracting major investments from companies like Michelin, JK Tyres, MRF, ATC and Apollo Tyres. The total installed capacity in tyre manufacturing in Chennai region is set to exceed 1,600 metric tonnes per day. This will make Chennai the largest tyre manufacturing centre in the country and one of the largest in the world.”

Noting the research and development centres of Daimler, Renault-Nissan, Visteon, M&M and Ashok Leyland were located in the state, Stalin said Tamil Nadu is emerging as a knowledge-hub for the global automobile industry.

He said the state of the art automobile testing facility, NATRIP, being set up near here at an outlay of Rs.500 crore will be commissioned in September this year as 80 percent of the civil works have been completed.

Stalin also said the government is in the process of drafting a sector specific policy for automobiles which will contain many new initiatives from the government not only to attract new investments but also to improve the competitiveness of the existing units.