Hero MotoCorp has announced an investment of Rs 160 crore on a Global Parts Centre (GPC) at a 35-acre plot at Neemrana, Rajasthan.

Mr Pawan Munjal, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Hero MotoCorp, announced this at St Petersburg, Russia, on Tuesday at a meeting of over 125 of its component suppliers. The suppliers from India, China, Thailand, Japan and Europe, are attending a three-day global conference.

This supplements the previous announcement of an over Rs 2,500-crore investment in setting up two new plants in Gujarat and Rajasthan, expanding capacity at existing plants and building an integrated R&D centre (Kukas, Rajasthan).

“The highly-mechanised GPC will be a new industry benchmark once it becomes fully-operational,” Mr Munjal said.

The GPC is expected to be operational in the third quarter of 2013-14 and will initially employ 400 personnel. It will have an automated storage and retrieval system, an automated packaging and sorting system, on-line tracking of parts and lean manufacturing systems.

With the expansion plans in place, the total installed capacity of the company would touch more than nine million units in two years’ time, in line with the objective of reaching 10 million units in the next five years.

roudra.b@thehindu.co.in