Japanese auto-maker Honda Motor Company on Friday said it would invest ₹965 crore in India to expand car and two-wheeler manufacturing capacities.
While Honda Cars India Ltd will invest ₹380 crore in its Tapukara plant in Rajasthan, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (HMSI) will pump in ₹585 crore to expand its third plant at Narsapura, Karnataka.
The expansion of the Tapukara plant, which will see annual production capacity go up from 1.2 lakh units now to 1.8 lakh units, is scheduled to be complete by mid-2016, Honda Cars said.
The expansion will also generate about 600 employment opportunities. “This will increase Honda Cars’ overall annual production capacity from the current 2.4 lakh units to 3 lakh units, including the 1.2 lakh-unit capacity of the first plant in Greater Noida,” it said.
The company has witnessed 44 per cent growth in domestic sales during April 2014 – February at 166,366 units compared with 115,913 units sold in the corresponding period last fiscal.
Two-wheelersSimilarly, HMSI, the two-wheeler arm of the group, said it would add a new production line at the Narsapura plant, which at present has the capacity to make 18 lakh units a year. The new production line will add six lakh units and increase the total production capacity to 24 lakh units before the end of 2016, the company said.
Combined with the additional capacity of the upcoming fourth plant in Gujarat, which is scheduled to become operational in the first half of 2016, HMSI’s overall annual production capacity would rise to 64 lakh units.
“Honda is strengthening its ‘Make in India’ resolve through steady and strategic investments with a long-term objective of creating 39 per cent additional capacity within 3.5 years,” Keita Muramatsu, President and Chief Executive, HMSI, said.
The company is also planning to increase the number of employees in the plant by around 1,900 people, he said. “This investment will provide new opportunities for expansion of the brand Honda in the largest two-wheeler market of the world.”