Maruti Suzuki is expected to complete the process of land acquisition for its new manufacturing facility in Gujarat by the end of December 2011 or January 2012. However, the company doesn’t intend to start working on the plant until its Manesar plant in Haryana is fully utilized, which would depend upon the market growth, said Maruti Suzuki India Chairman Mr. R C Bhargava.
Although the initial land requirement was 1,000 acres, the Maruti Suzuki board has given the go-ahead for purchasing up to 1,500 acres of land for the facility in the district of Mehsana. Currently, the company has manufacturing plants at Manesar and Gurgaon in Haryana which are capable of producing a total of 12,00,000 vehicles every year.
Commenting on the industry trend and market slowdown, Mr. Bhargava stated that Maruti Suzuki in 2011 may not be able to match the sales of the year 2010. The sales for 2011 till November have come down by 17.8 percent compared to the sales for the same period in 2010. The company’s exports for the year till November 2011 have declined by 24.4 percent.