Nagpur: In less than a year after Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) announced a plan to set up its largest automotive manufacturing facility in the city with an investment of Rs 15,000 crore, the Maharashtra Industries Development Corporation (MIDC) on Wednesday offered the first two land parcels, measuring 500 acres, in the additional Butibori estate for the proposed project.The company needs 1,500 acres in all. The total cost of the two plots has been fixed at Rs440 crore. Now, the ball is in the company’s court to accept the offer by paying Rs 110 crore as initial payment within 15 days.For starting the project, M&M will have to develop the plot within the period specified in the agreement to lease, sources said.Once operational, the facility will have the capacity to make five lakh vehicles and one lakh tractors in a year. It will support the company’s next-generation platforms like the NU-IQ and would be able to cater to both domestic and international markets.MIDC is expected to soon identify more land and come up with more offers in a short span, a source said. “We are making all the efforts to come up with offers for additional plots of land for the project,” said MIDC’s regional manager Manohar Pote.The 1,500-acre facility planned by M&M will be complemented by a 150-acre supplier park planned in Chhatrapati Shambajinagar.The company had announced the Rs 15,000 crore investment plan during the Khasdar Audyogik Mahotsav, an event patronised by Union minister for road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari. Company CEO Rajesh Jejurikar was also present at the event. The Mahotsav is organised by Association for Industrial Development (AID), an NGO pushing for developmental projects.The company already has a major manufacturing facility at MIDC’s Hinga estate, Nagpur, where it makes tractors. It has been one of the major industrial units in the region for decades.
