[Voitramma]

After much dilly-dallying, French auto major Peugeot seems to have given a slip to Tamil Nadu and zeroed in on Gujarat to set up its Indian base.
The European car major has decided to set up its Rs.4,000-crore manufacturing facility in the western state and the company officials are expected to ink a MoU with the Gujarat chief minister Mr Narendra Modi on September 1. Peugeot is the third car major to have opted for Gujarat after Tata Motors and Ford India.

Confirming the loss of Peugeot, a top TN industry department official said, “We know that Peugeot is not coming to Tamil Nadu but am not sure about the MoU with Gujarat.” This could be one of the greatest missed of a bigticket auto investment for Chennai, touted as the Detroit of India, especially after the new government is in place. Soon

after a visit by Peugeot officials during the last week of June, the TN government went overboard with a press release claiming that PSA had identified land at Sriperumbudur to set up a plant with an initial capacity of three lakh cars per year with a Rs.4,000-crore investment.
However, the PSA officials quickly clarified that they were exploring other options too and went ahead with their visits to Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat. But finally, they seem to have decided on Gujarat “owing to the investor-friendly attitude of the government”.

“It is the effective single window clearance system, uninterrupted power supply, easy land approvals and availability of supplies that seem to be impelling the auto majors to look at Gujarat as the next destination,” said a senior industry official.

As a first step, the brand will produce a mid-sized sedan car in the Indian facility, PSA announced in its web portal.