By IANS
Chennai : The Rs.3.2-billion Jamuna Auto Industries Ltd is going to choose between Chennai and Jamshedpur to locate its research and development (R&D) centre.
Planned at an outlay of Rs.150 million, the R&D centre would employ over 50 engineers.
According to Jamuna Auto CEO Randeep Jauhar, the company would need around 10 acres for the proposed centre.
“Getting land allotted near Chennai is very difficult,” he told the media here Wednesday.
Jamuna Auto prefers Chennai as the group company Jai Parabolic Springs Ltd has a plant here to make parabolic springs.
Jauhar said the company is also looking at Jamshedpur for the R&D centre.
The company has recently acquired Tata Motor’s leaf springs plant at Jamshedpur for Rs.150 million. It is now building a new factory there at an investment of Rs.750 million.
The proposed plant will have a total capacity of around 50,000 tonne per annum (tpa).
The company is also putting up a Rs.100-million plant in Uttarakhand to assemble parabolic springs for Tata Motor’s vehicles.
The company will fund the expansion with a mix of debt and internal accruals. It has already raised $8 million through external commercial borrowings. It plans to raise another $8 million through the same route.
Meanwhile the group is bringing under one roof its auto springs business — leaf spring and parabolic spring — by merging the Rs.1 billion turnover Jai Parabolic with Jamuna Auto.
Similarly, the group is merging the Rs.700 million turnover distribution company Map Springs Ltd with Jamuna Auto to focus more on the replacement market.
Presently, the group commands 60 percent of the Indian auto springs market. Its share in the replacement market is however just six percent.
Post expansion and merger Jamuna Auto will have a total capacity of 196,000 tpa.