• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• The Hindu ePaper
• Business Line
• Business Line ePaper
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

Our Bureau

Pune May 9 The Maharashtra Chief Minister, Mr Vilasrao Deshmukh, on Wednesday laid the foundation stone for luxury car maker DaimlerChrysler's new plant at Chakan.

The new facility, being set up with an investment of Rs 275 crore, would be producing about 5,000 vehicles per annum, Dr Wilfried Aulbur, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of DaimlerChrylser India (DCIL), told presspersons.The site is spread over 100 acres and would manufacture the Mercedes-Benz S Class, E Class and C Class cars for the domestic market. Production is expected to begin at the start of 2009 and the facility would initially employ around 350 employees.

It may be recalled that the company had signed a memorandum of understanding with the Government of Maharashtra on January 4. The existing facility at Chikali in Pune has a production capacity of 2,000 cars per annum.

Dr Joachim Schmidt, Chairman of the board, said the company has earmarked a certain portion of the new site for production of trucks. However, he said that no concrete decision had been taken on when the production of trucks would begin. It may be noted that the company had come into the domestic market with the trucks in 2006 and has already sold about 50 during the year.

"Right now we are in the market with CKD (completely knocked down) kits and are exploring the feasibility of truck manufacturing in the country,'' he said.

Asked whether the Indian roads would see the A and B Class cars, Dr Schmidt pointed out that in the emerging markets, these cars were not on the priority list. The cars that usually attracted customers were the C, S and E Class.

More Stories on : New Projects | Cars

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
GMDC applies for J&K mining rights

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line