Country's top car maker Maruti Suzuki on Thursday said Gujarat is a preferred location for the company to set up its new manufacturing plant. "Gujarat shall be a preferred location to set up a manufacturing plant,but nothing has been finalised yet. We are still exploring the possibilities for our next plant and we have seen sites in Tamil Nadu and Haryana," Maruti Suzuki General Manager (West Zone) S N Burman said. "We have been in talks with the Gujarat Government and other State Governments as well,but no final decision has been taken yet," he said. Maruti's plant in Manesar (Haryana) can produce 3.5 lakh units annually. The carmaker's three facilities in Gurgaon have a combined annual capacity of 8.5 lakh units. Burman was here to unveil the new version of 'Swift',with an introductory ex-showroom price of Rs 4.43 lakh and Rs 5.29 lakh for petrol and diesel versions,respectively. Maruti Managing Director Shinzo Nakanishi and Chairman R C Bhargava had met Chief Minister Narendra Modi in May this year and explored possibilities of setting up a plant in Gujarat,which already houses Tata Motors' Nano plant. The duo had expressed hope that plant location other formalities for Phase-I of the project will get completed in three months and the plant could go on stream in five years. Through new 'Swift',the company aims to further strengthen its position in the premium hatchback segment. "So far we have got 50,000 bookings for Swift,of which 5,000 are from Gujarat. The booking trend reveals that 80 per cent is for diesel version and 20 for petrol against our expectation of 60 and 40 per cent in the two categories,respectively," Burman said. Eyeing a big chunk of the projected 4.5 million unit car market in India by 2015,the company has proposed to set up another manufacturing plant in the country. "The estimated volume of Indian car industry is expected at 4.5 million units by 2015. To maintain its market share the company will have to manufacture at least 2 million units annually,so now we are in an expansion mode," Burman said. Maruti has decided to ramp up production of 'Swift',which competes with models likes Hyundai's 'i20',Toyota's 'Liva',Ford's 'Figo',General Motors' 'Beat' and 'U-VA' in the premium hatchback category. "We shall be increasing the production of the car ('Swift') to about 17,000-18,000 units in the next few months from over 12,000 units currently. This will help us cut down the waiting period for the car," Burman said. With increased output,the waiting period for the car is expected to come down to 2-3 months from 3-4 months now. "The company currently has a total annual production capacity of nearly 14 to 15 lakh units," he said
