Tata Motors to invest Rs 8,000 cr in 3-4 years

The country's largest auto maker, Tata Motors, is planning to invest about Rs 8,000 crore (Rs 80 billion) during the next three-four years as capital expenditure and product development.

The money is likely to be spent on launching new models and scaling up its operations.

"That Tata Motors will devote about Rs 8,000 crore to capital expenditure and product development in the next three to four years was reported by the company when it declared its first quarter 2009-10 financial results on July 27," a Tata Motors spokesperson said in response to an email query.

The spokesperson, however, refused to give details on modalities of raising the capex or its utilisation.

The plan for this huge capex comes close on the heels of reports that Tata Motors is planning to put special focus on its car division, where it has lined up a series of new launches including a new Indigo sedan, a new crossover model and some next-generation versions of its sports utility vehicles (SUV) Sumo and Safari.

It is also likely to go for capacity expansion of its plant at Pantnagar to cater for Light Commercial Vehicles, according to reports.

Tata Motors had recorded a 57.54 per cent jump in net profit at Rs 513.76 crore (Rs 5.13 billion) for the quarter ended June 30, despite sales declining by 7.6 per cent year-on-year.