Suzuki Gujarat plant construction completed; production to start from February 1: Report

Suzuki Motor Gujarat (SMG), the wholly owned subsidiary of Suzuki Motor Corporation, has completed the construction of its most ambitious project in India. The Japanese automaker's new Gujarat plant located in Hansalpur is ready to roll.

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SMG will start manufacturing of production models from February 1, reports Autocar Professional. Located near Mundra Port, Suzuki targets to make Gujarat plant as the export hub to over 100 markets, in addition to supply for the domestic market. The new plant will manufacture cars exclusively for Maruti Suzuki in India.

The key product from the Gujarat plant will be the Baleno hatchback and it was reported that 10,000 Baleno units will be manufactured by April 2017. Once production commences at the plant, it will ease pending demand for Baleno and Vitara Brezza. The premium hatchback and compact SUV have over 50,000 pending orders each in the country.

Apart from Baleno and Vitara Brezza, the Gujarat plant has been linked with production of Ignis compact crossover, new-generation Swift, new Swift DZire and Baleno RS. SMG was set up in March 2014 as Suzuki's standalone subsidiary. The plant has been developed with a total investment of Rs 18,500 crore with the capacity to make 250,000 vehicles annually. The production capacity of the Gujarat plant will be expanded to 750,000 units in future. Suzuki has reportedly budgeted $970.97 million for a second vehicle production line, which will be operational by 2019.

Maruti Suzuki plans to produce two million vehicles per year by 2022 in India, up from the 1.4 million at present. A major chunk of the planned production is expected to move to the Gujarat plant, apart from the current Gurgaon and Manesar plants in Haryana.