Hero MotoCorp, the country’s largest two-wheeler manufacturer, has commenced commercial production at its new greenfield manufacturing facility, situated at Chittoor in Andhra Pradesh on March 19. The Chittoor facility is Hero MotoCorp’s eighth manufacturing plant and sixth in India. The company had laid the foundation stone for the plant on March 23, 2018.

Hero MotoCorp has invested around Rs 1,600 crore for the greenfield plant, which is said to create around 12,000 new direct and indirect employment opportunities in the region.

The Chittoor facility is developed over a 600-acre site in the Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh, and will have an annual installed capacity of 1.8 million units, which will be achieved in three phases. Hero’s combined installed production capacity currently is the highest in the country.

This takes the company's cumulative installed manufacturing capacity to 11.6 million units per annum (as under):

Hero MotoCorp plants in India
Plant 1: Haridwar (Uttarakhand): 2.7 million
Plant 2: Dharuhera (Haryana): 2.1 million
Plant 3: Gurgaon (Haryana): 2.1 million 
Plant 4: Neemrana (Rajasthan): 1.1 million
Plant 5: Vadodara (Gujarat): 1.8 million 
Plant 6: Chittoor (Andhra Pradesh): 1.8 million
Total manufacturing capacity: 11.6 million units

The OEM says the facility is built on ‘green building’ concept, the plant incorporates roads built from plastic waste, dense forest cover, organic farming and a 10 MW Solar power plant that will be fully operational in the final phase.

In addition, Hero MotoCorp says it has filed an interlocutory application before the Supreme Court of India seeking relaxation of the March 31, 2020 deadline set for sale or registration of BS IV vehicles. In view of the completely unforeseen developments that have arisen out of the prevailing force majeure situation on account of COVID-19, Hero MotoCorp says it has asked for an extension of time for a period of three months, as this has “hampered all aspects of our industry”. Further, the OEM says the Ministry of Finance has also declared that the COVID-19 should be considered as a case of natural calamity and force majeure be invoked.

When fully operational, the Chittoor facility will take Hero MotoCorp’s total combined installed capacity to 11 million units of motorcycles and scooters per annum, which is in line with the company’s vision of surpassing the landmark 10-million-unit volumes by 2020.

The new plant in Chitoor will be Hero MotoCorp’s eighth manufacturing facility; the company already has five plants in India (Haridwar in Uttarakhand, Gurgaon and Dharuhera in Haryana, Neemrana in Rajasthan and Vadodara in Gujarat) and one each in Colombia and Bangladesh.

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