Chennai gets India's biggest Vehicle unit

The State Government on Monday signed a Memorandum of Understanding with a major vehicle-manufacturing consortium, facilitating the establishment of an integrated automobile project with an initial investment of about Rs.4,000 crore. To be located at Oragadam near here, it will be India's biggest vehicle manufacturing centre at a single location.

The consortium, comprising Mahindra and Mahindra, Renault (of France) and Nissan (of Japan), will manufacture utility vehicles and cars. The project will involve integrated automobile manufacturing facilities, which include those for engine plant, transmission plant, press shop, body shop, paint shop and assembly line. Initially there will be capacity to manufacture four lakh vehicles a year. This will be significantly stepped up over time, a release said.
The project will also have the capacity to manufacture 50,000 tractors a year.

There will also be a separate Mahindra Research Valley in the Mahindra World City near here.
At full capacity, the project will provide direct and indirect employment to about 41,000 persons. This will include those provided by ancillary units and service providers.
The project will result in a gross value addition of about Rs.18,000 crore a year to Tamil Nadu's Gross Domestic Product. The additional investment in the State by vendors and supporting service providers is expected to be about Rs.10,000 crore.

The MoU was signed by Shaktikanta Das, Industries Secretary, on behalf of the State Government. Pawan Goenka, president, automotive sector, signed on behalf of Mahindra and Mahindra; Patrick Pelata, executive vice-president, on behalf of Renault; and Carlos Tavares, executive vice-president and member of the board, on behalf of Nissan. Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi and senior officials were present at the signing of MoU.