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Karimnagar, which had been in the news for reelecting the Telangana Rashtra Samithi president, K Chandrasekhara Rao, with a thumping majority, has also entered the radar of Maruti Udyog Limited.
The non-resident Indians hailing from the district are knocking at the doors of India's largest car-maker to gift a vehicle to their loved ones under Maruti's "Dil Se" offer launched about three months ago.
"Karimnagar topped in the country with regard to the number of enquiries received from NRIs under the scheme", Maruti Udyog's chief general manager (marketing strategy and development), Arun Malhotra, told mediapersons.
The company's Dil Se offer has been designed exclusively for NRIs who wish to gift a car to their loved ones in India.
Till November 14, Malhotra said, Maruti had received 14,000 enquiries from NRIs who wanted to avail the company's offer. The company has so far sold 400 vehicles under the NRI scheme. The first car in this connection was booked by an NRI residing in Jakarta and delivered to his wife residing in Indore.
The car market leader unveiled its new Zen Estilo on Friday. Available in three models and eight colours, the price of the new vehicle ranged from Rs 3,24,881 to Rs 3, 72,623 (ex-showroom Hyderabad).
According to Malhotra, Maruti would be focusing on encouraging non-salaried people, particularly those residing in small towns, to purchase four wheelers. The company is expecting to sell more than 600,000 units in the current financial year.
Stating that for every car sold in the country six two-wheelers were being sold, he said that there were 250 cities in India where more than 500 two-wheelers were being sold every month. However, top 20 cities in the country still accounted for 60 per cent of the total car sales.
In spite of a booming auto industry in the country registering an annual growth rate of 20 per cent, Malhotra said that the penetration level of cars in India was low compared to several other countries.
He said that the car penetration level in India stood at 7 per thousand people while it was 10 in Pakistan and 100 in Thailand.