Maruti Suzuki Invests Rs 2000-cr in Rohtak R&D Center

Indian leading carmaker Maruti Suzuki has decided to scale up its research and development (R&D) infrastructure in India. The foundation stone of the upcoming R&D center, which is being set up on 600 acres land in the industrial modern township (IMT) in Rohtak, Haryana was laid on Monday, April 23, 2012.

Speaking on the occasion, MD and CEO of Maruti Suzuki India limited Shinzo Nakanishi said that the company was planning to pump in investment of Rs 2000 crore in setting up the R&D facilities.

A company official said that this is the second R&D of Suzuki center, and first outside Japan which is being set up in India obviously given the volume and future of the market. "We are selling around 12 lakh cars annually which are likely to reach 20 lakh by 2015. As per the market trends and experts opinion the market is expected to touch 40 lakh figure in next three years of which we hope that half will be Maruti Suzuki's share," the official said.

Maruti Suzuki MD Nakanishi stated that this would be equipped with latest R&D infrastructure and world class test tracks. "It will augment the R&D capability of Maruti Suzuki engineers manifold. This will enable us to design, develop and launch cars at a faster pace to serve the expanding market. R&D Centre would be an integrated facility for vehicle testing and evaluation, which is crucial for developing new car models," he said.

"We have increased the number of engineers in a systematic way over the last few years and now are scaling up the R & D capability to launch more new models and strengthen leadership in the fast growing Indian market".

Suzuki motorcycle, a subsidiary of Suzui Motor Corp, is also setting up a two wheeler plant at Rohtak's IMT. The first phase of the project will entail an investment of Rs 500 crore and will be completed in 2014 with an annual capacity of 5-lakh units, a company official said here. The company would increase the investment upto Rs 2,000 in three phases by 2019.

Maruti Suzuki has made investments of Rs 12,000 crore during the last seven years and investment of another Rs 6,000 crore was is in pipeline in Haryana. Officials claimed that the group is setting up two-wheeler manufacturing unit at IMT Rohtak now, and the proposed venture is an indicator of its preference for Haryana. Maruti Suzuki's proposed ventures at Rohtak are likely to give impetus to growth prospects in the region.