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Chennai Emerges as Asia's Automobile Capital
The State government is currently formulating a
policy on automobiles and components, which will
be ready soon, Deputy Chief Minister M.K. Stalin
said on Wednesday. Participating in the
inauguration of the plant of Renault Nissan
Alliance at Oragadam near here, Mr. Stalin, also
handling the portfolio of industries, said
according to the Automotive Mission Plan
2006-2016 document, the country was set to
emerge as the destination for design and
manufacture of automobiles, and auto components,
with the output reaching a level of $ 145
billion and providing additional employment to
25 million people by 2016. “Our government is
committed to capitalize on this opportunity and
attract a major share of investment flows,” he
said, unveiling a plaque to mark the
inauguration of the plant. Later, Chief
Minister M. Karunanidhi pressed a button to open
the assembly line of the plant and the roll out
of ‘Micra’ cars. Mr. Karunanidhi said with the
establishment of the Renault-Nissan car project,
Chennai had become the home of seven automobile
majors out of top 20 global automobile
manufacturers. The other automobile majors
located in Tamil Nadu were Daimler, Ford, BMW,
Hyundai and Mitsubishi. Though Chennai has
become the country’s largest automobile hub,
Chennai was lacking the vehicle testing
facilities. Therefore, automobile manufacturers
had to send their vehicles to Pune for testing
and certification. On the State government’s
initiative, the Union government was
implementing the National Automotive Testing
Research and Development Infrastructure Project
(NATRIP) in Oragadam at a cost of about Rs. 450
crore. The State government had given 304 of
land to this project. This project was aimed at
facilitating the introduction of world class
automotive safety, emission and performance
standards in India and ensuring seamless
integration of our automotive industry with the
global industry.
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Tracing the history of the project, Mr. Stalin said
after a memorandum of understanding was signed in
February 2008, the Nissan unit was now ready. “Renault
will also establish its car project, as envisaged in the
MoU,” he expressed the hope. The project envisaged
separate manufacturing lines for the partners Once both
Reanult and Nissan plants were established, their total
annual installed capacity for the production of cars
would be four lakh, and the total investment would be Rs.
4,500 crore, providing employment to about 10,500
persons directly, and another 31,000 indirectly, the
Deputy Chief Minister said. Yoshiro Mori, Chairman of
Japan-India Association and former Japanese Prime
Minister, explained how the relationship between the two
countries developed since his visit to India in 2000 in
the capacity of Prime Minister. The number of Japanese
companies established in and around Chennai was at 170
from 65 three years ago. Carlos Ghosn, Chairman and CEO
of the Renault-Nissan Alliance, said the manufacturing
system combined the best practices of the two companies.
He also reiterated his organisation’s commitment to fuel
efficiency and other quality parameters. Akira Sakurai,
Managing Director of Renault Nissan Automobile India and
Marc Nassif, deputy managing director of the company,
were among those who spoke on the occasion.
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