Thaindian News

Kolkata, Aug 18 (IANS) India’s largest car maker Maruti Suzuki Thursday said it will expand its plant at Haryana’s Manesar by five lakh units by the 2014 fiscal.

“Our Manesar plant will be expanded by 5,00,000 by the end of fiscal year 2014,” Maruti Suzuki managing executive officer Mayank Pareek said.

“Plant B at the site will be commissioned by September. With a third plant becoming functional, the production will go up to 17.5 lakh units from the current 12.5 lakh units,” he added.

Pareek was speaking at the launch ceremony of a new variant of Swift in the premium hatchback segment here.

He said high inflation or the higher rate of interest will not affect the demand for the new car. “We already have received 50,000 bookings for the new car.”

The official said the company’s future investments on engines depend largely on the auto fuel policy.

“The Indian car market is largely petrol market though the demand for diesel cars has been on the rise. We will not make much of investment in engines unless there is long term clarity on auto fuel policy. In fact, the whole industry is in a dilemma over the issue.”

The auto major will invest Rs.6,000 crore in setting up a research and development centre at Rohtak in Haryana, 17 brand centres across the country and four ’stock yards’ in the metros of New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata.

Pareek, without revealing any figures, said the company was ‘bullish’ in spite of the industry being adversely affected by high inflation and higher interest rates.

The company is also hoping to maintain its export figure of 138,000 units which it registered last year.

“Considering the condition of the European market, which is our main exporting arena, we will be highly pleased if we can match last year’s figures,” the official said.