Tamilnadu is eyeing at bringing investments from automobile and auto component manufacturers

J Jayalalithaa, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu yesterday formally inaugurated a new plant for trucks from the German giant Daimler in Oragadam which is about 55 kms from Chennai. Spread over 392 acres, this plant will be manufacturing trucks between the six and forty nine tonnes category. Daimler India will be branding these trucks under ‘Bharat Benz’ and 70 dealerships have been planned for the retailing purpose. The initial target of this factory would be to produce around 36,000 trucks every year which will be later increased to 71,000 units every year. After the inauguration Ms. Jayalalithaa announced that the state of Tamil Nadu before deciding auto industry-specific policies will be signing investment pacts with several auto makers as well as auto component makers of the Indian automobile industry.

She further stated that the government is currently in the process of formulating some policies that would comply with the Vision 2023 and help turning it into reality, Scaling the growth rate of manufacturing sector upto 14% is one such vision. She further stated, the government of Tamil Nadu is soon going to announce its policies concerning various industries like biotechnology, automobiles and auto components, aerospace and renewable energy sources esp. solar power. In the words of the Managing Director of Daimler India, Marc Llistosella, the opening of this plant marks the beginning of an interesting journey of Daimler trucks in and from India.

The company is also eyeing a localization level of 90 percent, out of which 50 percent will be contributed by Tamil Nadu by 2015. With over 1,500 employees across domains, the company is all geared up for the production of trucks in the third quarter of 2012. Ms. Jayalalitha, elaborated the development plans for Tamil Nadu, in which she mentioned that government has chalked out a big improvement plan under which the government will be offering a power capacity of 20,000 MW and will also laying down 2,000 km long expressways with six-eight lanes and 5,000 km highways with four lanes.

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