Thaindian News

Chennai, Feb 5 (IANS) With investments by automobile units having a multiplier effect in job creation, the Tamil Nadu government will come out with a policy specially for the industry, Deputy Chief Minister M.K. Stalin said Friday.
“The automobile industry is a major employment generator. If the mother automobile plant employs one direct labour, the vendors cumulatively employ eight,” Stalin said at the inauguration of auto firm Ford India’s new engine plant near here.

“Considering the importance of this sector, our government is to formulate an industry-specific sectoral policy for automobiles and components. The draft policy will be finalised within three months,” he said.

Ford also rolled out its small car Figo Friday.

According to Stalin, the total manufacturing capacity in and around the state capital is 1.28 million units of cars annually and 350,000 units of commercial vehicles.

“In other words, Chennai will have a capacity to produce three cars every minute and one commercial vehicle every 75 seconds,” he said.

While Mahindra and Mahindra has decided to locate its new facility in Tamil Nadu, the state already houses major car companies like Ford, Hyundai, BMW, Renault-Nissan and Mitsubishi.

Stalin also said the state accounted for 32 percent of the country’s auto components production capacity.

Inaugurating the new engine plant with an annual capacity of 250,000 units and the commercial production of Figo, Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi expressed satisfaction at the investment made by Ford and the 6,000 jobs it has created.

He said Tamil Nadu has got 16 major automobile and auto component projects involving an outlay of around Rs.27,000 crore.

Apart from building a new engine facility, Ford India has doubled its vehicle manufacturing capacity to 200,000 units per annum.

According to Ford India’s president and managing director Michael Boneham, the company will start exporting Figo and engines to South Africa and Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) countries.