Maruti not shifting jobs, investment from Haryana to Gujarat

The country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India is neither shifting investments nor jobs from Haryana to Gujarat by shifting production of its compact sedan Dzire, company chairman RC Bhargava said on Tuesday.

The company is maximising the efficiency of production at its two plants at Haryana and the parent Suzuki's Gujarat plant, keeping in mind the demand of its multiple models.

"The plants in Haryana will continue to work in full capacity.

"Employment will remain full, there's no change in employment. No production is going away from Gurugram.

"If this (Dzire) goes away some other model will be made here.

"It's a rationalisation of how to make different models in the most efficient manner," Bhargava told PTI.

He was responding to remarks of Congress general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala who on Monday criticised the Haryana government over the shifting of Dzire production from the state to Gujarat.

Surjewala had termed the development as a "body blow to Haryana" and accused that "instead of bringing jobs and industry to Haryana" the BJP-led state government was "pushing the mother automobile unit out of the state".

Bhargava, however, said a company like Maruti Suzuki with over 15 models "has to adjust from time to time what to produce where so that it is most efficient".

"By doing that, neither does the employment in any site change nor does the investment change, because the investment is in the production line, the paint shop and the weld shop and those don't change," he asserted.

Explaining the rationale behind the moving of Dzire production to Gujarat, Bhargava said the company keeps adjusting between different plants depending on the market demand of the different models.

"It is most efficient if you have a large volume of a particular model, then you should produce it on a single line and not break it up between a number of lines.

"So, you like to keep production of large volumes in one location," he said.

Bhargava further said, "Now, the Dzire has a large volume, but in Manesar and Gurugram we have a number of models which produce.

"So, it was becoming difficult to produce the requirements of the Dzire in Haryana and because we have the new line available in Gujarat, we have shifted this to that plant."

The company produces around 1,000 units of the Dzire per day on average.

The model is the third after Baleno and Swift to be rolled out from the Gujarat plant.

The company's plants in Haryana have an installed capacity to roll out 15 lakh units per annum, while that of Suzuki Motor Gujarat reached 7.5 lakh units per year after the third unit started production in April this year.

Photograph: Courtesy Maruti Suzuki