Volkswagen India welcomed on Monday, 16th December, its 25,000th visitor at the Pune Plant in Chakan. Started in September 2011, the Visitor Services at Volkswagen Pune Plant has been offering plant visits to all types of visitors to its manufacturing facility in Chakan. Out of the 25,000 visitors so far, there have been more than 17,000 students from various educational institutions who have visited the facility.
The Visitor Services at Volkswagen Pune Plant was started in September 2011 to allow people to visit the state-of-the-art manufacturing facility of the German company in India. The idea behind the Visitor Services was to give an opportunity for the common man to witness the manufacturing process of a Volkswagen car and understand what makes it different and special.
The plant tours conducted under Visitor Services at Volkswagen Pune Plant cover a short company presentation followed by a walk through the Body Shop and Assembly Shop along with an overview of the Press Shop and Paint Shop. In the Body Shop, key processes like Laser Welding and Inline Measurement Systems are shown to the visitors, whereas in Assembly, the Cockpit assembly and the Engine-Chassis Marriage are the highlights for the visitors. Based on the target audience, tailor-made plant visits have also been designed.
Apart from the 17,000 plus students, various corporates, investors, dealers, customers and other external people have been visiting the plant for tours since the commencement of the Visitor Services. On an average, two plant visits are conducted every working day and each group of visitors can have the plant visit with the plant tour guide giving information in Marathi, Hindi, English and German.
Today, the group of students visiting from Mahaveer English Medium School had the 25,000th visitor – Hrishikesh Kashikar, who was gifted with a scale model of the Volkswagen Polo. Speaking on the occasion, a teacher from Mahaveer English Medium School, commented, “It was a pleasure to have had the opportunity of showing our students how Volkswagen cars are manufactured. The information given through the tour and the processes shown clearly reveal what all goes into the manufacturing of world class cars.”
Mr. Mahesh Kodumudi, President and Managing Director Volkswagen India Private Limited, said, “A Volkswagen is everywhere in the world a Volkswagen and meets always the same international standards. At the Pune Plant, we are following this philosophy and rolling out international quality cars. The plant tours that we conduct at our facility help greatly towards highlighting our culture of high quality, robust engineering, and top-class technology. We are proud that we have been able to show as many as 25,000 visitors what a Volkswagen stands for.”
The Volkswagen Pune Plant in Chakan occupies a total area of over 2.3 million square metres (575 Acres), with buildings covering about 115 thousand square metre. The plant was built in a record time of seventeen months, with an investment commitment of INR 3,800 Crores (580 million Euros) by Volkswagen India Private Limited It is the largest investment by a German company to date in the Indian growth market. The plant has a production capacity of 150,000 vehicles a year. The Pune plant is one of the most modern in the Volkswagen Group. The facility is the only production plant operated by a German automaker in India that covers the entire production process from press shop through body shop and paint shop to final assembly. The Volkswagen Pune Plant was inaugurated on 31st March 2009 after which begun the production of Skoda Fabia, followed by the Polo in December 2009, the Vento in August 2010 and the Skoda Rapid in October 2011.
