Peugeot, French manufacturer, made an announcement on Thursday saying they would be making an investment of Rs. 4000 crores to build a plant for auto manufacturing in Sanand. The facility would be next to Tata’s Nano facility and also next to Ford’s unit.
Pillippe Varin, Chairman, PCA (Peugeot Citroen Automobiles), told this move signifies the birth of a lion in Gujarat when he referred to the Peugeot logo at an event for the proposed signing of the agreement between Peugeot and the Gujarat Government. Varin elaborated that Peugeot did prefer Sanand as the proper location than Tamil Nadu as the Gujarat State Government offered a business-friendly system that was proactive, unmatched infrastructure and was geographically positioned well to procure passenger car market all over India.
GIDC (Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation) has allotted 584 acres of land for Peugeot in Sanand. It has also allocated 25 acres more for ancillary industry support to the unit.
The unit would provide employment directly and indirectly to 5000 and 25,000 people respectively. The unit would start its operations in 2014 and start manufacturing 1.65 lakhs automobiles initially. Peugeot expects an export of 25% of its automobiles. An additional setup of a gearbox and an engine plant that uses modern power train technology would further help constitute a fully operational industrial automotive unit.
The announcement further speaks of Peugeot’s plans of an expansion in capacity to 3.4 lakh automobiles, three lakh gearboxes and engines by 2020. Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of Gujarat expressed that the arrival of Peugeot in Gujarat after Ford and Nano entitles the State as a prime auto hub globally. He told many more manufacturing units were making their way to Gujarat. Facilities for supply of auto parts in process to be developed for the companies would make the State one among the largest suppliers of auto parts globally.
