One of the leading automobile company of India, Tata Motors, and Italian firm Fiat Group have plan to invest Rs 4,000 crores in their new automobile plant that will generate 24,000 jobs. The factory is inaugurated by Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh at Ranjangaon near Pune.

According to Fiat Auto Vice-President Stefan Ketter

“This factory, a 50:50 joint venture between Tata and Fiat, would create 4,000 direct and 20,000 indirect jobs,’

The annual production capacity of the plant would be about 1 lakh and 2 laks engines. The first phase has already commenced in February and producing Fiat Palio Stile. The commercial launch is planned on April 4, 2007 at Mumbai. The body shop welding and assembling operations are in full swing. The plant will see a second step in 2008, with the production of Fiat’s new cars like the Grande Punto and the Linea. At full capacity, the Ranjangaon plant will produce in excess of 100,000 cars and 200,000 engines and transmissions yearly.

The Ranjangaon project, which is a joint venture between Fiat Group Automobiles and Tata Motors announced in December 2006 and said to produce both Fiat and Tata Motors cars and Fiat powertrains. The plant is situated in an Industrial Development Zone, with a total land area of 8, 50,000 sq. meters. The estimated total cost of the project will be Rs. 4,000 Crores.

Tata Motors will be distributor of Fiat cars and undertaking marketing, sales and service of the cars through a country-wide Tata-Fiat network of 63 dealerships covering more than 42 cities.

It should be noted that Tata Motors is India’s largest automobile company, with revenues of US$ 5.5 billion in 2005-06. More than 4 million Tata vehicles plying on Indian road.
Fiat is an Italian company founded in 1899 in Turin, Italy and one of the leading companies in the automobile industry. Fiat has produced approximately 90 million passenger cars and light commercial vehicles of more than 400 models.

Via:Tata Motors