Asia Bizz: Indian car manufacturing giant Maruti Suzuki has reportedly planned to cut the output of its vehicles by almost half at its plant in Gurgaon, in northern Haryana. After cutting down production, the company plans to set up a new factory in the western Indian state of Gujarat, which will have the capacity to manufacture up to 2.0 million cars in a year.
The new plan comes in to light after the company made and announcement on March 24, 2012 and revealed its plans to build a new diesel factory in Gurgaon. The new diesel plant will be constructed in order to meet the growing demands of diesel cars in a nation where petrol gets more expensive each month. The recent decision to move towards Gujarat comes after the company faced unrest among its laborers last year at their Manesar plan, in Haryana. The labour strike affected the production of the diesel cars due to which the delivery of the new Swift Desire car was delayed.
The chairman of Maruti Suzuki, RC Bhargava, revealed on March 26, 2012 that the company plans to trim output at its factory at Gurgaon to 500,000 cars per year by the year 2015, due to logistical as well as environmental issues. The chairman added that it will eventually make up to 2.0 million cars in Gujarat. Earlier the company said that it decision to build a factory in Gujarat is not linked to labor problems in Haryana and was due to capacity problems.
Bhargava added, “At no point we said we will shut vehicle production at that [Gurgaon] factory.” Even an Indian newspaper had previously reported that Maruti might stop making cars at the Gurgaon factory and shift all the operations at the Gujarat factory.
The chairman said that the final decision on the capacity of the Gujarat factory will be taken by the end of June 2012.
