Maruti Suzuki's Gujarat plant to be commissioned by mid-2015

Maruti Suzuki's Rs 4,000 crore plant at Bechraji in Mehsana district of north Gujarat is likely to be commissioned by mid-2015.

The company's Chief Operating Officer S Y Siddiqui while attending the FGI EXPO 2013 Agro & Auto Summit in Vadodara earlier this month said: "The Bechraji unit will manufacture 2,50,000 cars per annum, while two other plants of the company located at Gurgaon and Manesar in Haryana have been manufacturing 17.5 lakh car per annum".

The demand for diesel cars has gone up due to high cost of petrol and because of which there is waiting list for diesel cars, Siddiqui said and added that some kind of balance in prices of petrol and diesel is needed.

"With Becharaji unit, total production of cars of the company will go up to 20 lakh per year," he added.

Siddiqui admitted that there has been a fall in demand for cars this year compared to last year due to factors like high rate of interest and high cost of petrol.

He said the company will set up four to five Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) in Gujarat for meeting the requirement of skilled manpower. The company in partnership with ITI in Vadodara plans to set up about 50 ITIs, of which 11 have already been set up, Siddiqui said.

With inputs from PTI