Car market leader Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL) is finalizing its plans to set up a Rs 18,000 crore new manufacturing facility in Haryana before the end of this calendar year. The company Chairman RC Bhargava said on Monday that the state government is reducing the gross salary cap to Rs 30,000 per month in its 75 per cent job reservation policy for locals.
He stated that the industry would have been “happier without the reservation policy”; however the positive response of the state government and after several rounds of discussions with various industry bodies and associations, Maruti Suzuki has been prompted to finalise the shifting of its congested Gurugram unit to a new location within the state.
Last week, the Haryana government had notified that under the Haryana State Employment of Local Candidates Act, 2020, 75 per cent reservation in the private sector to job seekers from the state will come into force from January 15, 2022. At the same time, the upper limit of gross monthly salary or wages under the Act was reduced from the earlier envisaged Rs 50,000 to Rs 30,000.
While terming the reduction in the gross salary cap as a “positive development”, Bhargava said some details are yet to be worked out.
Maruti Suzuki will be looking for a new land within Haryana where it can set up three units with each having an annual production capacity of 2.5 lakh units. The overall investment in the new facility will be around Rs 18,000 crore. It will take at least three years for the new unit to operationalize, Bhargava said.
Bhargava also added that a lot of it also depends on how the Indian passenger vehicles market grows over the next few years.
MSIL has been planning for some time now to shift from its Gurugram manufacturing unit, which is spread over 300 acres because of congestion and traffic hassles. However, the plan was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and move by the Haryana government to bring job reservation policy.
On the winding down of the Gurugram unit, Bhargava said, “It is not happening in a hurry. We have to first set up at the new location.”
