Gujarat's Mandal Becharaji SIR is expected to emerge as India's largest automobile hub: official

Gujarat's Mandal Becharaji Special Investment Region, where over one million cars are being produced every year now, is expected to emerge as India's largest automobile hub when all the expansion plans of the car manufacturers would be completed, according to a senior official from the state.

The Mandal Becharaji Special Investment Region (MBSIR) is located between Ahmedabad and posts of Mundra and Kandla in Gujarat.

"Automobile companies like Honda, Ford, Chinese SAIC, Tata Motors and Suzuki Motors have ramped up production over the last two years to one million units a year," Industrial Extension Bureau managing director Rajkumar Beniwal said, adding the car manufacturers are supported by more than 1,000 ancillary and auto-part vendors in the Phase I.

"Suzuki motors has already started building their phase II plant and is planning for phase III, Beniwal said.

Beniwal said he expects that the Phase II and III of the special zone would be completed in the next five years, when the annual car output at expected to touch 2.5 million units, making it the largest automobile hub in India.

Updating people about a large number of projects in Gujarat to Singapore business community as part of promotion campaign for "Vibrant Gujarat 2019", which is to be held 18-20 January 2019 in Gandhinagar.

He said that land acquisition was underway in the Dholera SIR which is spread over 900 sq km with infrastructure to support establishments of defence, automobile, engineering and textile industries.

"We are building basic infrastructure like roads, gas connectivity, drinking water, internet and optical fibre lines as well as electricity through an underground service tunnel for these industries," he said.

Ongoing developments in the state also covered part of major Indian projects, according to Beniwal.

One such project is the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) which is a high-speed freight rail connectivity between the Indian capital and the commercial and financial city on the west. Thirty-six per cent of the DMIC passes through Gujarat where industrial hubs are planned on both sides along the 100-km stretch of the route.

Beniwal also said that land acquisition has started for the route of Mumbai-Ahmadabad Bullet Train, completion of which is expected by 2022-23. Work on facilities including manufacturing of coaches, using Japanese technology, have started offsite, expansion is being worked on at the Gujarat International Finance Tec City (GIFT City), which is expected to attract Mumbai-based industries once the Mumbai-Ahmadabad bullet train starts operations.

The industries relocation is obvious as Gujarat has world-class locations such as GIFT City and supported by further expansion at the Mundra deepwater port, Dahej chemical port and Kandla/Deendayal port.

He pointed out that Gujarat's ports were already handling more than 40 per cent of India's export shipments.