‘No goodbyes’, urges Haryana government to Maruti Suzuki

Haryana is set to lose an invaluable landmark of an iconic legacy, and is doing its best to prevent it from happening. Maruti Suzuki is planning to relocate from its oldest factory in Gurugram in the midst of traffic congestion and complaints from residents and civic bodies.

Maruti Suzuki has already brought down production at this plant from the original capacity of 700,000 vehicles a year. The state government has given Maruti Suzuki India Ltd at least seven options for locations to set up a new car plant.

These include Rohtak, Karnal, Faridabad and Dharuhera according to sources. Initially, the state government offered a 1,300 acre site in Sohna. But the company’s engineers deemed the location unfeasible due to “excessive amount of sulphur and salt” in the soil and low-lying area with very high levels of groundwater.

The new car plant is expected to require investments of around Rs 12,000 crore, including cost of land and four assembly lines for producing one million cars a year.

Maruti has one more factory in Haryana at Manesar and a third in Gujarat. It would suit the automaker to have am 800–1,000 acre plant that is preferably close to its Gurgaon factory, to ensure minimum resistance from workers on relocation.