M&M begins work on Rs 300-cr tractor plant in AP

Diversified industrial group Mahindra & Mahindra today began work on its seventh tractor plant at Zaheerabad in Andhra Pradesh with a capacity of 100,000 units a year. It would invest Rs 300 crore in the facility spread over 100 acres, and expects to commence production in 2012.

The new factory would have manufacturing lines installed for assembly of tractors, engines, gear box, hydraulic and sheet painting, according to a company release.

Pawan Goenka, president (automotive & farm equipment), M&M, said the plant would have advanced technological processes, large-scale manufacturing set-up and ecologically-friendly focus, creating new benchmarks in manufacturing tractors.

The company plans to manufacture tractors in the range of 30-90 HP for domestic and export markets, with all models conforming to emission norms in India, Europe and USA.

M&M sells tractors under two brands, Mahindra and Swaraj, and is a market leader in India. It sold 166,000 tractors in the domestic market last year, and is also a leading maker of tractors globally.

It has tractor plants at Mumbai, Nagpur, Rudrapur (Uttarakhand), Jaipur, Mohali, and Rajkot, apart from two plants each in the US and China and one in Australia.