Maruti Suzuki India Ltd will invest Rs 350 billion to set up its second automobile manufacturing facility in Gujarat at the Khoraj industrial estate in Sanand. Once commissioned, the unit will be the company’s fifth manufacturing facility in India, after three plants in Haryana and one at Hansalpur village in Gujarat. According to a government statement, the new facility will have an annual production capacity of 1 million cars. The handing-over ceremony of the investment letter was held in Gandhinagar in the presence of Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel and Maruti Suzuki India Managing Director and CEO Hisashi Takeuchi. The plant will come up on 1,750 acres acquired by the Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation and is located close to the Mandal Becharaji Special Investment Region, which houses Maruti Suzuki’s first Gujarat plant at Hansalpur. A memorandum of understanding for the project was signed at the Vibrant Gujarat Summit in 2024. Under the project, four plants will be developed, each with an annual production capacity of 0.25 million cars. The first unit is expected to begin production by 2029. The release said the new Maruti Suzuki facility would generate employment opportunities for more than 12,000 people, along with around 0.75 million indirect jobs through ancillary units and MSMEs. Chief Minister Patel said the project was not merely a new automobile manufacturing facility, but an important step towards further strengthening the country’s largest and most competitive automobile manufacturing corridor. Mr Takeuchi said Gujarat is emerging as a leader in mobility transformation, from which Maruti Suzuki has also benefited. He added that through a strong partnership with the Gujarat government, the company is keen to contribute actively to the Make in India initiative through its manufacturing units in the state. Deputy Chief Minister Harsh Sanghavi and Maruti Suzuki Whole-Time Director and executive committee member Sunil Kakkar were also present at the event. In 2012, when he was Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi had invited Maruti Suzuki to invest in the state, following which the company’s first Gujarat plant became operational at Hansalpur. That facility currently produces 0.75 million cars per year, with plans in place to add another 0.25 million units, taking total capacity to 1 million cars annually by the 2026–27 financial year.