Honda Siel Cars to invest Rs 250 cr in Rajasthan plant

NEW DELHI: Honda Siel Cars India today said it will invest Rs 250 crore in its Tapukara plant at Rajasthan for expansion of a power train facility that would be used for its upcoming small car in India. With the new investment, the company's overall investment in the Rajasthan plant will go up to Rs 1,170 crore by the end of the year. "The Tapukara power train facility expansion will help us to enhance our overall capacity in future and also to accrue benefits of low-cost manufacturing available in the country," HSCI President and CEO Takashi Nagai said in a statement. In January this year, the firm had announced that its small car -- to be produced from the plant -- would be launched in India by 2011. It is expected to priced below Rs 5 lakh. HSCI said that the power train facility, currently under construction, would be completed by the end of 2010. It will be utilised to manufacture engine and transmission components such as cylinder heads and cylinder blocks. Till now, they were being imported from Indonesia and Thailand. The Tapukara plant currently produces crankshaft and connecting rods for vehicles that are assembled at its Greater Noida plant, besides export purposes, it added. Nagai said that expanding the Tapukara is a step towards Honda's aim to make India its future manufacturing base for critical components to provide for the firm's global operations. The company plans to utilise the plant for catering to domestic demand as well as exports. In September 2008, HSCI had launched its first phase of operations in the plant. It has an annual production capacity of 60,000 units. Later in December the same year, the company announced the postponement of capacity enhancement and assembly operations at the plant due to a slowdown in the automobile industry. Source : Economic Times    (7/27/2010)