Firodia Group Looks At Pumping `350 Crore In Two Plants
After a lull of a couple of years, automotive investments are once again driving up to Chennai. Pune headquartered Abhay Firo dia Group is investing Rs 350 crore in two separate plants in Chennai a Rs 200 crore Force Motors plant in Ma hindra World City to make engines and transmissions for BMW India that was in augurated this week and an other Rs 150 crore die-cast ing factory for group company Jaya Hind.
Praising the local govern ment's “pro-active“ help Force Motors and Jaya Hind MD Prasan Firodia said: “We have already short-listed a land parcel for a second plant in Chennai. It will be an alu minium die-casting facility for Jaya Hind, our die-cast ing business. The SOP (start of production) should happen by the end of next year.Jaya Hind already supplies to OEMs like Renault, Nissan, Ford and others which we will move to our Chennai factory,“ he added. Jaya Hind is a die-casting and components company that makes clutches, brakes and other auto parts. The Firodia Group in vestment comes on the heels of several others after a fouryear dry spell urging which auto companies looked at other destinations for their projects. earlier this year, Mahindra & Mahindra announced it would invest Rs 4000 crore to set up a manufacturing facility in Tamil Nadu. Others like Royal En field are also enhancing their TN footprint.
Royal Enfield is upping capacity at its Oragadam plant and has also acquired a 50 acre piece of land between Sriperumbudur and Oragadam for any future capacity expansion. It is also building its R&D centre at another plot on the new Mahabalipuram road.
As for the Abhay Firodia group, the two Chennai group, the two Chennai plants are part of its Rs 1000 crore capex plans. The group is also planning another `dedicated' plant for its other big luxury car client Mercedes Benz along the lines of the Chennai plant for BMW.“We will set up three new plants including one in Chakan dedicated to Mercedes Benz, and one each in Gujarat and Dewas (Madhya Pradesh) for Jaya Hind,“ said Firodia.
