Stalin lays foundation stone for Tata Motors' Rs 9,000 cr plant

Chennai: Home-grown automobile major Tata Motors on Saturday broke ground for the construction of a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Ranipet district of Tamil Nadu at a cost of Rs 9,000 crore. The plant will manufacture vehicles of flagship models of luxurious Jaguar and Land Rover, apart from four-wheelers of the Tata Motors portfolio.

The ground breaking ceremony comes just six months after the Tamil Nadu government and Tata Motors signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to set up a “cutting-edge” vehicle manufacturing unit.

Chief Minister M K Stalin laid the foundation stone for the factory, which will come up at an area of 470 acres at an industrial park owned by the State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu (SIPCOT) in Panapakkam in Ranipet district, in the presence of Tata Sons’ chairman N Chandrasekaran.

The new factory – Tata Motors’ second in South India after Dharwad in Karnataka -- is expected to provide direct jobs to 5,000 people, even as Chandrasekaran said the car plant will transform the area by uplifting the lives of people.

Tata Motors is the second automotive major to announce and start work on their plant in Tamil Nadu in about a year after Vietnamese EV maker VinFast laid the foundation stone for its factory in Thoothukudi in February.

Thanking Tata Motors for choosing Ranipet for its hi-tech facility, Stalin harped on Chandrasekaran’s roots in Tamil Nadu – the Tata Sons’ chairman hails from Namakkal – and nudged him to invest more in the state. “We are very proud that Chandrasekaran, who studied in a government school, is the Chairman of a global conglomerate like Tata Sons. He should bring more factories to the state,” Stalin said.

The Chief Minister also added that Tata Motors’ entry into Tamil Nadu has once again reinforced the state’s standing as the automobile hub of India with companies like Hyundai, BMW, Renault-Nissan, and Ford having made it their home.

Recalling Tata Group’s long-held presence in Tamil Nadu employing about 1.5 lakh people, Chandrasekaran said the factory will for the first time create a platform to manufacture vehicles of Tata Motors and Jaguar Land Rover. “The cars produced at the plant will have the latest technology equipped with electric and electronic architecture…this is not just another factory,” he said.

Chandrasekaran said Tata Electronics Private Limited (TEPL) has built a modern electronics ecosystem in Hosur in Krishnagiri district, employing about 20,000 people of which 15,000 are women. “In just about a year, the TEPL facility in Hosur would double its strength to 40,000 people,” the top executive added.

The announcement by Tata Motors in March came three years after the company chose to buy the Ford’s Sanand plant over the Maraimalainagar plant near Chennai following the US’ automobile decision to exit the Indian market in September 2021. Tatas decided to buy the Sanand plant as only a wall separated the company’s factory with the one that was owned by Ford, while the Maraimalai Nagar plant will come to life again very soon.