Suzuki to set up Rs.2,000-cr Two-wheeler plant in Rohtak

Japanese automaker Suzuki Motor Corp’s wholly-owned two-wheeler company, Suzuki Motorcycle India, plans to set up a greenfield plant in Rohtak entailing an investment of . 2,000 crore. The company has been allotted about 50 acre land by the Haryana government to set up the plant in a phased manner. It plans to have a cumulative production capacity of two million units, beginning with production of 500,000 units a year in the first phase by 2014. “The new facility will take care of our future capacity requirements to feed the Indian market till we exhaust the million-unit production capacity at our Manesar plant,” a senior executive said. Suzuki, which also owns India’s biggest carmaker Maruti Suzuki, has invested over . 15,000 crore in car production and assembly, a two-wheeler plant and a diesel engine-making plant in Gurgaon and Manesar in Haryana. The company also plans to invest another . 6,000 crore to expand its car plants at Manesar, besides setting up an R&D centre at Rohtak to develop technology and products at the 600-acre facility that is dubbed as its largest overseas research operation outside of Japan. Maruti has already made public plans to move out of Haryana and is looking at setting up a two-million capacity plant in Gujarat that is expected to commence operations after 2015.
Haryana currently houses the largest number of two-wheeler companies, with Hero Motocorp, Honda Motor & Scooter and the iconic American bike maker Harley Davidson already operating plants in the state. The fresh investments are likely to take the cumulative two-wheeler capacity in the state to around 10 million units by 2020.