Toyoda Gosei Minda to invest Rs 73cr on new plant in Gujarat

Auto component maker Toyoda Gosei Minda India is investing Rs 73 crore to set up a new plant in Gujarat to manufacture airbags to meet expected increase in demand as stricter safety regulations set to be adopted in India shortly.

The new plant will begin supplies of airbags, weather- strips and other automotive parts to Suzuki Motor Gujarat (SMG) in the second half of fiscal 2017-18, the company said in a statement.

Around 75-80 per cent of the production at the new plant will be for SMG, while the rest will be used for supplying to Toyota and Honda.

The plant will have an initial capacity to cater to requirements of 2.5 lakh vehicles per annum, which could be doubled when fully operational.

Once the new plant comes on stream, Toyoda Gosei will have a production network of five plant locations in India, it said.

India is moving towards stricter safety norms with offset and side crash test becoming mandatory from October this year for new models and for all the models it will become standard in 2019.

Similarly, pedestrian safety will also become mandatory for new models in 2018 and for all models by 2020.

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)