Peugeot performs bhoomi poojan at Sanand

French carmaker Peugeot held its ground-breaking ceremony at its future manufacturing site in Sanand, Gujarat, on November 3. The ground-breaking ceremony marks an important landmark in the development of Peugeot’s India project which follows the State Support Agreement (SSA) signature held in Gandhinagar on September 1. The coming weeks will see the completion of soil analysis, immediately followed by preliminary ground levelling works. The beginning stages of laying the foundation are scheduled subsequently.

Grégoire Olivier, member of the managing board PSA Peugeot Citroën and CEO of Asian Operations, Vincent Rambaud, director general of Peugeot and Frédéric Fabre, managing director of PCA Motors India, performed the bhoomi poojan and the ground-breaking ceremony. Chief minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi commented: “Gujarat is emerging as a global auto hub. I congratulate Peugeot to be part of it.”

“I take this opportunity to reiterate and reassure you of the longstanding commitment and dedication that we devote to this project,” said Vincent Rambaud.

The automotive and engine/gearbox plant will be constructed on an area of 600 acres, to which Peugeot will add a suppliers park with an investment of Rs 4,000 crores. The plant will have an initial capacity of 170,000 vehicles per annum and will help create up to 5,000 new jobs. In an earlier interview with Autocar Professional, Frederic Fabre had said the company plans to achieve a localisation level of 80-85 percent from start of production.

In conjunction with the project, Peugeot and Gujarat plan to set up an Automotive Skills Development Institute to be located within the Sanand automotive cluster. Peugeot will be present at the Auto Expo in Delhi in January 2012.