The Hindu Business Line : Tata Motors’ Dharwad bus plant gets State nod

Snapshot
The project would be located on 900 acres at Belur near Dharwad.
7,500 buses and 38,000 LCVs are to be manufactured at this plant.
The project is likely to generate 38,000 jobs at Dharwad.

Alka Kshirsagar

Pune, Sept. 11 The Karnataka Government has given Tata Motors Ltd all the necessary approvals to begin work immediately on a facility to manufacture luxury buses and vans at the Belur Industrial Area near Dharwad.

It may be recalled that Tat Motors had announced the forming of a 51:49 joint venture company with Brazil-based bus maker Marcopolo SA last year for the manufacture and assembly of fully built luxury buses and coaches in India. It was reported to be scouting for land for what the Managing Director, Mr Ravi Kant, said would be amongst the “biggest bus plants in the world”.

A Karnataka Government order stating that Tata Motors can begin work on the massive, three-phase plan to manufacture luxury buses, vans, light commercial vehicles and components and parts in association with joint venture partners at Dharwad was issued on September 3.

In addition to granting several concessions to the Rs 3,000-crore project, the Government has sanctioned the auto company’s request for an additional 300 acres to put up a vendor park for the manufacture of various parts, components and sub-assemblies.

Confirming the development, Mr Katta Subramanya Naidu, Industries Minister in the Karnataka Cabinet, said that the project would be located on 900 acres at Belur.

“The company and its vendors will make an investment of Rs 3,000 crore in three phases,” Mr Naidu told Business Line. “Production of buses, which is part of the first project, will begin by early 2009,” he sa id.

According to sources, the first project (luxury buses and their components) involves an investment of Rs 325 crore in two phases by Tata Motors, and around Rs 90 crore by vendors. The second project – manufacture of LCVs, vans and their components – involves a financial outlay of Rs 2,500 crore in three phases, and production will begin by early 2011.

Capacity expansion

The business road map also plans for an annual production of 7,500 buses that can be ramped up to 30,000, while the number of vans and LCVs are pegged at 38,000 units initially.

There are 37,675 jobs likely to be generated by Tata Motors and vendors who set up shop in Dharwad.

A Tata Motors spokesperson declined comment on the issue, sharing, however, that the company had 529 acres at Belur.

Telcon, the company’s earth moving equipment subsidiary and a 60:40 partnership with Hitachi Construction Machinery Company, Japan, also has a plant on approximately 118-acre plot here.

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