New Bridgestone unit to be in Pune.

Bridgestone India has revealed plans to set up a new manufacturing plant in Maharashtra. The tyre maker plans to acquire 770,000 square metres of land at the Chakan Industrial Area near Pune.

According to managing director Hiromi Tanigawa, the new facility will begin production of passenger car radial tyres (PSR) and truck and bus radial tyres (TBR) in response to the growing demand of those tyres in India, which is seeing marked economic growth. The total investment is expected to be around Rs 2600 crores in a phased manner. While PSR production is scheduled to begin in January 2013, TBR production will commence in August 2013. By 2020, the company’s production capacity is slated to reach 10,000 units of PSR and 3,000 units of TBR per day.

The Pune plant will be Bridgestone’s second tyre making plant in India. It already has one plant at Pithampur near Indore, which produces PSR tyres and plans to start the production of TBR tyres there in 2011.