The Hindu Business Line : Bajaj Auto moves ahead on 4-wheeler project

Pune, Sept. 24 Bajaj Auto Ltd (BAL) took possession of 250 acres of land earmarked for its four-wheeler project at Chakan on Monday, taking its first definitive step in the direction of extending its existing product portfolio of two- and three-wheelers.

The company had announced its intent to make a foray into the commercial four-wheeler segment last year, and signed an MoU with the Government of Maharashtra in August 2006 to set up a Greenfield project at Chakan.

Mr S. Ravikumar, Vice-President, Business Development, said that the plant that would go on stream in the first half of 2009, and initially manufacture a cargo vehicle developed in-house. The total investment by BAL and vendors in the new facility, which will have a final installed capacity of 1,600 vehicles a day, is around Rs 2,000 crore, he said.

Cargo vehicles

With this foray, BAL will stake a claim to the slice of the cargo vehicle market that is currently dominated by Tata Motors’ sub one-ton offering, the Ace. That the company is taking this segment seriously is evident by the fact that BAL recently restructured its businesses, and created a commercial vehicle unit and appointed Mr R.C. Maheshwari CEO.

The company already has four units in Maharashtra, including a modern plant at Chakan where the Pulsar is manufactured and one at Waluj near Aurangabad where it manufactures three-wheelers, its smaller motorcycles and the newly launched 125cc XCD. Production at its Akurdi plant was discontinued from September 1, so the new plant will effectively be its third manufacturing facility in the State.

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