The Hindu Business Line : Aurangabad plant gearing up for Bajaj’s 4-wheel LCV

Pune, June 27 Bajaj Auto’s facility at Waluj near Aurangabad is gearing up to accommodate assembly lines to produce the company’s first four-wheel light commercial vehicle, indicating that BAL, which has said it is open to an alliance with partners Renault-Nissan for LCVs, intends to go solo on this front at least initially.

A commercial vehicle team drawn from existing staff at Waluj has been formed to work on the new venture, a highly reliable source said, adding that the company was also in discussions with suppliers to set up shop at a vendor park that is proposed inside the premises. Bajaj Auto’s Managing Director, Mr Rajiv Bajaj, declined to comment on the issue.

Developed entirely by an in-house, the new vehicle — codenamed PV 1500 — will have a payload capacity of around one-tonne, putting it in the same space as the Tata Ace. It is expected to hit the market by the middle of next year.

The Waluj plant is where Bajaj currently manufactures around one million vehicles annually, including its entire range of three-wheelers and some two-wheelers. The facility has plenty of sheds that have been lying vacant when the company began outsourcing the manufacture of some components that were earlier made in-house a few years ago. These will be used to house the assembly line for the PV 1500 and vendors as well.

Vendor park

Among the vendors who are expected to set up base at the park at Aurangabad is Thai Summit Neel Auto (TSN), a 50:50 joint venture between the Jay Bharat Maruti Group and Thai Summit of Thailand, which has said it would invest Rs 150 crore initially to build a greenfield unit for Bajaj Auto’s four-wheeler project in Pune. It had also disclosed plans to set up another unit at Aurangabad for manufacture of fuel tanks for Bajaj two-wheelers.

Ever since manufacturing operations at BAL mother plant at Pune were discontinued last September, the Waluj facility is now the company’s oldest production plant.

Last year, the company signed a wage agreement with nearly 4,000 workers here suggesting that it had some long-term plans for it .The issue of a revised wage agreement for around 1,450 workers at its Akurdi plant, however, still remains unresolved.

More Stories on : New Projects | HCV/LCV/Tractors | Bajaj Auto Ltd

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