Karnataka is set to become the country's second largest automobile hub in South India after Tamil Nadu. Recently, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India has commissioned the construction of its new two-wheeler manufacturing facility at Narasapur in Kolar district, which is just 58 km away from the state capital Bangalore. Interestingly, Karnataka's major source of revenue is the Information Technology (IT) sector and this state is aptly called the IT hub of India.
TVS Motors is already present in Karnataka and has a manufacturing plant at Nanjangud in Mysore district. The top Indian auto majors having presence in Karnataka are Toyota, Volvo, Mahindra Reva Electric Vehicles and Tata Motors. The southern Indian state is also home to off-road and commercial vehicle auto makers like BEML. Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India is the second two-wheeler manufacturer after TVS Motor Company to have footprint in Karnataka.
Yadvinder Singh Guleria, Vice President (VP), Sales and Marketing at Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India, has revealed that the company would assemble Activa automatic scooters and entry level commuter bike Dream Yuga from the new facility. The Kolar-based manufacturing plant is expected to have an annual output yield of 1.8 million units by March 2014. The Japanese auto maker would provide work to over 4,500 local public and the total employment numbers are expected to reach 10,000 in 2014.
The Karnataka state government has provided 119 acres of land to Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India for the company's new factory. Narasapur, where the Japanese firm's facility is based, would host several other auto makers, such as Swedish firm Scania and British premium bike maker Triumph Motorcycles. In fact, Scania has already started work on its bus and truck body-building factory in the Narasapur Industrial Area. Triumph Motorcycles is believed to have zeroed in on Narasapur for setting up its local assembly unit, for which a 40 acre piece of land has been identified. Evidently, the Global Investors Meet (GIM) which was held in June last year played a big role in attracting investments from the automobile sector in the Narasapur Industrial Area.
Mahindra Reva Electric Vehicles, a part of the $ 15.9 billion Mahindra group, opened the doors of its world class electric car manufacturing facility at Bommasandra near Bangalore. Tata Motors also has two factories for buses construction equipment in Dharwad, while BEML has operates from two plants in Bangalore and KGF. It is evident that Karnataka has emerged as the new favourite among automobile companies. Therefore, it would be interesting to note if the state is able to match its neighbour Tamil Nadu's contribution to the Indian auto industry.
