The Ashok Leyland-Nissan combine has identified Chennai to set up a plant to manufacture light commercial vehicles (LCVs). The auto project, which will come up in the Oragadam belt, adds to the city’s growing automobile manufacturing landscape, already dotted with Hyundai, Ford, BMW and Mitsubishi, besides the home-grown Ashok Leyland and TAFE.The project is likely to come up in Pillaipakkam, near Oragadam, and the state government is set to offer around 410 acres for the venture. A formal announcement is expected in the next few weeksAshok Leyland and Nissan Motor have formed three joint ventures for the LCV business — one each for vehicle manufacturing, powertrain manufacturing and technology development. An initial capacity of one lakh vehicles a year would be installed in the first phase, and it would be scaled up subsequently. The plant is expected to start production from the financial year 2010-11. Among the three platforms identified, covering applications up to 7.5 tonne gross vehicle weight, is an all-new generation Nissan Atlas F24 light-duty truck. The project envisages an investment of $575 million (Rs 2,450 crore). Ashok Leyland and Nissan would invest Rs 600 crore each as equity, while the rest would be raised as debt.Nissan has partnered with Renault of France to set up a passenger car manufacturing facility in Oragadam. The ground breaking ceremony for this venture happened few days ago, and the first cars are expected to roll out in 2010.
Chairman of the Daimler-Hero commercial vehicle unit Sunil Kant Munjal met chief minister K Karunanidhi to discuss the company’s plans. It is learnt that Munjal expressed his desire to set up the Rs 3,000 crore venture in the Oragadam belt. Around 4,000 people are likely to be employed in the project.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment