Haryana goes all out to keep Maruti invested
MUMBAI: The Haryana government has offered Maruti Suzuki India Ltd at least seven new locations to choose from for a new factory being planned by the country’s largest carmaker.
The local unit of Suzuki Motor Corp. wants to shift out of its oldest factory in the country, in New Delhi’s bustling suburb of Gurugram, amid traffic congestion and complaints from residents and civic bodies.
The Haryana government has offered new sites in Rohtak, Karnal, Faridabad, Dharuhera, among others, to Maruti, said two people with direct knowledge of the matter.
The alternative locations were offered after Maruti rejected a 1,300 acre site at Sohna, around 40km from Gurugram, after its engineers found the site was not conducive for constructing a car factory. The engineers found “excessive amount of sulphur and salt” in the soil, which was not suitable to build a heavy industry facility, the first person said on condition of anonymity. “Most notably, the area was found to be low-lying, with very high levels of groundwater. Water would come out in about half a metre of digging,” added the person.
A spokesman for Maruti declined to comment.
If Maruti decides to build the new factory in Haryana, it is estimated to require an additional investment of about ₹12,000 crore. These would include the cost of procuring land and building four assembly lines capable of producing one million cars a year.
Since it opened the factory at Gurugram in the early 1980s, Maruti has constructed a second plant in Haryana, at Manesar, and its third factory in the country, in Gujarat.
The automaker is seeking 800-1,000 acres, preferably close to its Gurugram factory, to reduce likely resistance from its workers on relocation. It told the Haryana government that the site should be well-connected by roads and railways and should not be in low-lying areas, the second person said.
Maruti is likely to build residential quarters, hospitals, schools and other amenities for its employees in and around the facility.