Indian multinational car manufacturer, Mahindra & Mahindra on Saturday inaugurated its first automotive assembly plant in Sri Lanka in Welipenna in Kalutara district.
The plant called Mahindra Ideal Lanka Private Limited, is a 65:35 joint venture between Mahindra & Mahindra and Ideal Motors, Sri Lanka.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe inaugurated the plant in the presence of the Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Taranjit Singh Sandhu, Dr Pavan Goenka, Managing Director of Mahindra & Mahindra LTD and Nalin Welgama, Managing Director and CEO of Mahindra Ideal Lanka among others.
The assembly plant set up with an investment of Rs. 2 billion will assemble the M&M’s compact sports utility vehicle (SUV) KUV100 and will have a production capacity of 5,000 vehicles annually.
The unit will provide direct and indirect employment to about 200 people over the next two years. The first vehicle was rolled out today.
This is the first assembly plant in Sri Lanka, which will also source certain components locally.
Speaking on the occasion, Welegama, Chairman, Ideal Motors, said conforming to the government’s requirement of 30 percent local value addition, seats, exhaust systems, tires and batteries for the KUV 100 would be locally produced.
The vehicle assembly unit will also see a vendor development park coming up in the vicinity.
Prime Minister Wickremesinghe said encouraging local manufacturing was one of the main features of the Sri Lankan government. He pointed out that this was just the beginning and that the country had a lot of export potential for locally manufactured products to neighboring countries given its location.
Dr Goenka, recalling the M&M’s distribution partnership with Ideal Motors over the last 10 years said since there is a government push for electric vehicles in Sri Lanka, M&M has already planned two EVs for the Sri Lankan market. “We will bring our electric three-wheeler here,” said Goenka.
Courtesy: Colombo Page
