With heavy investment, Maharashtra set to become global auto-hub

Maharashtra is on way to become the global auto-hub with four companies investing Rs.11,510 crore in Pune, officials said Thursday.

The state government Thursday signed agreements with Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra for investments of Rs.4,000 crore each, with Bajaj Auto for Rs.2,000 crore and Volkswagen for Rs.1,510 crore.

These fresh investments have come under the state's Industrial Mega Project Policy of June 2005.

Under the policy, so far a total of 413 mega projects with investment commitments of Rs.323,802 core have been launched with an employment potential for 362,000 people.

Out of the 413 projects, 114 have already gone into production so far, while the others are in various stages of commencement.

Since April 2014, the state has attracted 10 mega projects with investment commitment of Rs.2,702 crore and with nearly 6000 new jobs creation, said officials.

This was followed up by Thursday's four mega auto projects.

Present on the occasion were Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, Industry Ministery Narayan Rane and other top officials.

Of the four auto projects, three - Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra and Volkswagen - will be in Pune district and one by Bajaj Auto will be in Aurangabad, with a total new job creation for 6,270 people.

Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra will expand manufacturing facilities for automobiles, while Volkswagen India plans to manufacture diesel engines and backward integration.

Bajaj Auto will expand its capacity for manufacturing two-wheelers and commercial vehicles in two phases in Aurangabad from 2.28 million to 3.36 million in first phase and upto 3.84 million in second phase.