Maruti gets second land parcel

Taking a step ahead in its Gujarat plans, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd now has been allotted the second land parcel it had sought from the Gujarat government, sources in the state government said.

The company had sought for more land from the state government earlier in June this year for the second phase of the proposed manufacturing plant in Gujarat.

Maruti was allotted around 700 acres of land at Hansalpur near Mehsana, around 100 kilometers from Ahmedabad in June.

...

Around two weeks after signing the state support agreement (SSA) with the state government for purchase of land near Mehsana on June 2, the company had approached the state government for another land parcel of around 300 acres near the existing plant site.

Accordingly a piece of land was short-listed by the state industries department, around 10-15 kilometers away from the present site at Hansalpur. The company has also been allotted the land recently, informed a senior state government official.

"It is not Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) land. The state government has allotted land from its own land bank. Even the first plot of 700 acres is not GIDC land", the official informed on grounds of anonymity.

...

The company could not be reached for a comment on the same.

Maruti is all set to invest Rs 4,000 crore (Rs 40 billion) in Gujarat to build a 250,000 units per annum plant by 2015-16. 

The company is likely to begin work on its upcoming plant within the next three months, informed a state industries department official.

Post Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi's Japan visit where he had met Suzuki Motors chief Osamu Suzuki at Hamamatsu, Maheswar Sahu, principal secretary, industries and mines, government of Gujarat, had said, "Maruti Suzuki is working on designs, they are very serious about implementing the project in Gujarat, and they will start production from the Gujarat plant by 2015.The phase two of the project would be developed depending on market conditions."

...

The Gujarat plant would be Maruti's third plant in India and the first one outside Haryana.

Maurti's Manesar plant was hit by a riot on July 18, resulting in the death of a senior manager and injured more than 100 people as over 3,000 workers ransacked the factory premises. The plant has remained shut ever since.

Speculations were rife as Narendra Modi went on a four-day Japan trip, which included meeting the Suzuki chief at its headquarters at Hamamatsu that the Gujarat chief minister would try to woo Maruti Suzuki to scale up its proposed operations in the state in the wake of labour issues at Haryana.

...

The state government has, however, clarified that no such attempts have been made to encash on the labour issues troubling Maruti Suzuki's Manesar plant.

Meanwhile, Gujarat is planning to build a 600 hectare township at a 15 minutes drive distance from Maruti's upcoming plant at Hansalpur in collaboration with Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO).