No surprises in Narendra Modi and Suzuki meeting says Murad Beg

24 August, 2012

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Suzuki Motor Corporation (Japan) Osamu Suzuki met Gujarat's Chief Minister Narendra Modi today to review the progress of Maruti Suzuki India's (MSI) proposed plant at Mahsana district. The plant is worth 4000 crore rupees and its capacity will be 2.5 lakh units in a year in the first phase.

NARENDRA MODI who had been to Japan a month back, has requested Japanese companies to come and invest in Gujarat. Maruti Suzuki India has already been alloted two chunks of lands measuring 160 hectares and 70 hectares by the government of Gujarat. The work on the plant is expected to begin soon.

Osamu Suzuki's visit to the state have become more significant in the wake of recent developments at the MSI's Manesar plant in Haryana, which was engulfed in violence. After the Manesar incident, speculations were rife that the company may opt out of Haryana and will fully settle in some other state. And Gujarat was seen as top in the list.

However, the company had already clarified that it has no intention so far to move out of Haryana. Notably the operations have been re-started at the Manesar plant from August 21.

Auto industry expert Murad Beg, too, believes that one should not expect any surprising outcome from the proposed meeting as the agenda is already loud and clear However, he added that if in future working environment at Manesar becomes too bad to continue operations smoothly, then Maruti will not hesitate to choose an alternative. And that alternative could be anything including Gujarat.

“Maruti has big investment in Manesar. They will be continuing there operations there. But if conditions become too bad in future then they can look for some alternative and that can be anywhere including Gujarat,” Murad Beg told this Citizen Journalist .

He said that Maruti Suzuki India has chosen Gujarat's Mahesana to set up its new facility as the place is near to port, which will enable the company to export the cars easily.