The proposed manufacturing plants of Maurti Suzuki and Suzuki Motorcycle at Industrial Model Township in Sonipat’s Kharkhoda will entail an estimated investment of ₹20,000 crore and generate about 13,000 direct jobs.
An agreement and land allotment letter were signed by the Haryana government with the two companies on Thursday to mark Maruti Suzuki’s four-decade old association with the State.
Spread across 800 acres, the proposed Maruti Suzuki plant will be the company’s largest single manufacturing site in the country involving total investment of about ₹18,000 crore.
Kenichi Ayukawa, executive vice-chairman, Maruti Suzuki, said the company would start construction work on the car manufacturing plant immediately. “With the support of the State government, the first plant, with an annual capacity of 2.5 lakh vehicles, is expected to be commissioned within 2025. The Phase-I of the project will have an investment of about ₹11,000 crore,” he added.
The site will have space for capacity expansion to include three more plants in the future and will have total capacity of 1 million vehicles when completed. The project will provide direct employment to about 11,000 people.
Suzuki Motorcycle’s project will be spread across 100 acres and entail an investment of about ₹1,500 crore. It will generate about 2,000 direct jobs.
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal, referring to the literal meaning of the company, said “Maruti is Haryana’s Hanuman”. Mr. Lal said the new law guaranteeing jobs to 75% youth in Haryana would ensure that about 9,000 youth from Haryana get jobs in these two projects. He also requested the company to shift its headquarters from Delhi to Gurugram and make a foray into real estate.
Maruti Suzuki’s chairman R.C. Bhargava said the past two years had been challenging for the auto sector and the supply of semi-conductors continued to be erratic, making it difficult for car companies to run at full throttle. He said that high inflation would mean that those with less disposable income would avoid buying vehicles impacting demand.
Haryana Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala was also present.
IMT Kharkhoda is being developed by Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation over 3,200 acres with more than 2,500 industrial plots.
