Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) will make an additional investment at its Chakan plant to the tune of Rs 4,000 crore over a seven-year period. The company signed a joint declaration to this effect in Mumbai today. With this, M&M’s total investment at Chakan will go up to Rs 8,000 crore.

Anand Mahindra, chairman, Mahindra Group, said, "We would like to express our deep and sincere gratitude to the government of Maharashtra for its visionary industrial policies and efficient governance practices. This has prompted us to take the decision to scale up our world-class Chakan plant, making Maharashtra a key partner in our growth over the coming years".

Dr Pawan Goenka, executive director, Mahindra & Mahindra, said, "We are delighted to announce the next phase of our expansion plans at Chakan and would like to thank the government of Maharashtra for their continuous and unstinted support.”

M&M’s Chakan plant rolls out a slew of products such as the Maxximo, Genio SC/DC, Bolero, Scorpio and XUV500.  Chakan is also home to Mahindra Trucks & Buses, the renamed entity that was earlier Mahindra Navistar till the Indian partner bought out the US company’s equity last December.

The amount committed will be utilised towards infrastructure development, product development and capacity expansion for vehicles. The state government has conferred the status of ‘Ultra Mega Project’ to this proposed expansion. There will also be additional investment by suppliers.

Chakan is home to OEMs such as Volkswagen (which has recently announced an engine plant) and GM India at Talegaon from where it will export its Chevrolet Beat hatchback. The Fiat-Tata JV is located at Ranjangaon. The Talegaon-Chakan belt is home to a variety of suppliers from the IAC Group, Lear Automotive, Tenneco and Bridgestone, among others.

Photograph: M&M’s Dr Pawan Goenka signs an MoU with Apurva Chandra, principal secretary (Industries), government of Maharashtra in Mumbai today.