Prashant Prabhu, the head of Michelin's Africa-India-Middle East division said that Michelin would invest around 400 million rupees to build the factory at Thenvoy Kandiga, which is located around 50 kms off Chennai. He further added that the plant would start its operations by the year 2012, focusing on the growing Indian market.
 
Prabhu has signed an MOU with Government of Tamilnadu for construction of the plant. He further expressed his gratitude towards the Tamil Nadu government for offering Michelin a gateway in Tamil Nadu.

 
It might be noted that most of the automobile majors like Ford, Hyundai have their manufacturing set ups around Chennai. Apart from these, companies like Ashok Leyland, TVS, MRF have huge setups around Chennai. Michelin arriving in Chennai will result in Chennai being transformed to a major hub for automobile manufacturers in Asia. The Tamil Nadu government in the last 10 years has been very aggressive in this front, luring major companies from abroad to Chennai.
The plant would be set up over an area of 290 acres and will employ 1500 people.

Michelin had announced its plans in the mid of slump in global demand. Michelin has reported a drop in sales for the third quarter by 10.9 per cent to 3.75 billion euros on a 12 month comparison. Michelin has also axed around 1000 emloyees in France.

The statement from the company said that India offered enormous potential considering massive road construction plans here.