Mahabharat Motors Manufacturing Co Ltd, a jont venture between Indonesia?s Salim Group and Universal Success Enterprise Ltd of Singapore, has installed its assembly line in West Bengal to assemble TVS motorcycles.
This is one of the number of projects jointly planned by Salim and Universal.
While both companies have plans to jointly pour over Rs 2 lakh crore into the state for projects such as the Petroleum Chemical and Petrochemical Investment Region (PCPIR), Kolkata West International City (KWIC), International Logistics City, a power plant and motorcycles factory, they have invested only Rs 390 crore so far—Rs 290 crore in KWIC and Rs 100 crore in Mahabharat Motors, which will serve as an outsourcing facility for
TVS Motors. TG Sridhar, chief operating officer of Mahabharat Motors, said the Rs 100 crore investment is all equity. There is no debt component in it. Originally conceived as a plan to manufacture Arjun Motrocycles, the project will assemble only 100-cc TVS sports motorcycles. Sridhar said trial production will start from October and commercial production from November. The facility wants to assemble 1,000 motorcycles a month initially, which will increase to 5,000 a month to assemble all categories of TVS motorcycles in 12 to 18 months.
After achieving that number, the company will move to make Arjun- branded motorcycles, Sridhar said. However, besides TVs motorcycles, the company will make Arjun TVS King four-stroke 100-cc LPG auto, though the number of units to be made remains undecided.
Sridhar said while the facility in Uluberia will serve a part of TVS? east and northeast markets with present demand ranging between 8000 and 10,000 a month, the market for Arjun auto has to be created.
?The number of autos to be made will depend on the orders placed by our dealer. At present, Mahabharat has tied up with one dealer in Kolkata,? Shah said.
He said there would be 15 TVS-approved vendors supplying equipment and TVS and some of its approved vendors will supply the main components.
The facility at present would create job opportunities for around 100 people, which in another year will give jobs to 200 more people, Sridhar added.
However, after failing to get the Tata?s Nano plant and with the ambitious PCPIR mired in uncertainty, industry is almost heaving a sigh of relief that Mahabharat?s assembly unit has been launched. Although West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee laid the foundation stone of this unit in 2006, the installation of the assembly line on 65 acres on Thursday was a low-key affair.