After a lull, Maharashtra saw several announcements by auto majors, all aimed at expanding their existing plants in the state. While Mahindra & Mahindra will make an additional investment of Rs 4,000 crore over a seven-year period, Bajaj Auto will also invest a similar amount. Tata Motors and Volkswagen India will invest Rs 2,000 crore and Rs 1,510 crore respectively. MoUs to the effect, worth a total of Rs 11,510 crore, were signed by the companies at a function in Mumbai on August 28.

Most importantly, the government said that VAT would henceforth be applied on gross sales and not net sales as was announced in 2011. Industry had said this had taken away its competitive advantage.

Dr Pawan Goenka, executive director, M&M, 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 its continuous and unstinted support.” He said the investments will make Chakan one of India’s largest auto manufacturing facilities.

Of the four projects, three will be in Pune district and one at Waluj, Aurangabad. All investments are expected to generate jobs for 6,270 persons, as per an official statement. Tata Motors will invest in expanding its manufacturing facilities and generate 1,200 jobs, while VW India’s investment includes
Rs 240 crore for an engine plant. The rest will be for backward integration activities. The VW investments will generate 570 jobs

M&M’s Chakan plant rolls out the Maxximo, Genio SC/DC, Bolero, Scorpio and XUV500 from Chakan. The state government has conferred the status of ‘Ultra Mega Project’ to the proposed expansion. There will also be additional investment by suppliers. The expansion is expected to generate 2,500 jobs. For M&M, this investment will take its total investment at Chakan to Rs 8,000 crore.

Bajaj Auto plans to invest Rs 2,000 crore in two phases which includes a Rs 1,000 crore investment from vendors, for capacity expansion from 22,80,000 to 33,60,000 units in the first phase and from 33,60,000 to 38,40,000 units in the second phase for making two-wheelers and commercial vehicles. This will generate 2,000 jobs.

Photograph: Prithviraj Chavan, chief minister of Maharashtra, flanked by senior government officials and top executives of the MoU-signing automobile manufacturing companies, in Mumbai on August 28.