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After labour trouble at its Manesar plant, Maruti Suzuki is now scouting for land in Maharashtra for setting up a greenfield facility.
The company wants to derisk its manufacturing operations as both its plants have been badly hit by strikes in recent months.
Labour unrest over the last 14 days had compelled Maruti to look at Maharashtra and Gujarat for setting up new units. The labour protests were settled on Friday.
A senior Maharashtra Government official told Business Line that preliminary discussions were held with the company officials to assess requirements for land and other infrastructure. Industrial land around Khed, which is about 40 km from Pune city, is most suitable for setting up the units. Other alternative locations are also being worked out, the official said.
The Maharashtra Government will have to create a customised package of incentives for Maruti Suzuki. The company will then consider the offers from both governments (Gujarat and Maharashtra) and then take a final decision, the official said.
A manufacturing unit in Maharashtra will help the company service a section of the Northern and Western regions along with the Southern market. It will reduce the freight cost while shipping the cars from North India to the rest of the country, the official said.
Another senior official said that in Maharashtra the textile mill strike of 1980s led by Dr Datta Samant, was the only major industrial unrest of the last 30 years. Neighbouring Gujarat has not been so lucky; it had its own share of strikes in the past.
As recently as March this year, while tackling a strike at an industrial unit in Halol town in Panchmahal district, the Gujarat Government, first had to declare the strike illegal and then imposed Section 144 of the IPC, near the plant to prevent any possible gathering of the workers, the official said, reinforcing his pitch for Maharashtra as a better destination for the plant.
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