South grows as automobile hub

Tamil Nadu is expected to be a leader in automobile industry in the country with Chennai alone having a capacity to produce 2.2 million vehicles per annum in the near future, said deputy chief minister M K Stalin. The state government is presently in the process of drafting a sector specific policy for automobiles which will contain many new initiatives not only to attract new investments but also to improve the competitiveness of the existing units, he added.

Chennai is expected to host a couple of new automobile projects including a Rs 1,800 crore project from Mahindra & Mahindra for setting up a plant for producing 150,000 SUVs and a Rs 1,000 crore project from Sundareshwarar Alloy and Steels to set up a tractor plant at Nilakkottai and a Tractor componant manufacturing plant at Gangaikondan.

Inaugurating a state-of-the-art tyre manufacturing facility of Apollo Tyres at Oragadam, near Chennai, Stalin said, “We are also in the final stage of discussion with a global automobile major for setting-up a car plant near Chennai with a capacity of 300,000 cars with an investment of Rs 4,000 crore.

With the completion of these projects, Chennai region alone will have the production capacity of nearly 2.2 million vehicles per annum making the city number one automobile manufacturing centre in the world, he added.

With major players like Michelin, JK Tyres, MRF, ATC and Apollo Tyres investing in tyre manufacturing facilities in the city, the total installed capacity in tyre manufacturing in Chennai region is set to exceed 1,600 metric tonnes per day.

Further, the National Automotive Testing and R&D Infrastructure Project (NATRiP), a Rs 500 crore initiative of the central government supported by the state government is also under development and is expected to be operational in September 2011. The state government has allotted 304 acres for the project in Tamil Nadu, informed Stalin.