Country’s largest auto maker Maruti Suzuki said on Thursday that the state of Gujarat is the preferred location for the company to expand its operations in the Indian auto market. The company plans to establish a new manufacturing unit in the state in coming months.
Speaking to reporters in Ahmedabad on Thursday, Maruti Suzuki General Manager (West Zone) S N Burman said, "Gujarat shall be a preferred location to set up a manufacturing plant, though nothing has been finalized yet. We are still exploring possibilities for our next plant and we have seen sites in Tamil Nadu and Haryana."
He added that the company is in talks with the government of Gujarat, but no final decision has been taken in this regards, so far.
At present, Maruti Suzuki has two manufacturing plants in Haryana including one each in Manesar and Gurgaon. While the Manesar plant has a capacity of producing 3.5 lakh units annually, the Gurgaon plant produces 8.5 lakh units per annum.
Mr. Burman was in Ahmedabad to launch the new version of the Swift. The new Swift has already received an overwhelming response from buyers in Gujarat - according to Mr. Burman, so far the company has got 50,000 bookings for Swift, of which 5,000 are from Gujarat. The booking trend reveals that 80 per cent is for diesel version and 20 for petrol against company’s expectation of 60 and 40 per cent in the two categories, respectively.
