Faridabad bestows Mahindra’s defence auto facility
Tractor to multi-utility vehicle maker Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd (M&M) is assessing plans to get into manufacturing of small aircraft but will concentrate on naval and land systems currently for which it has launched a new facility at Faridabad, reported livemint.
“We are currently working with NAL (National Aerospace Laboratories) in their project to design a turboprop plane and at the right time we will assess whether or not to go into the manufacturing,” said Vice-chairman Anand Mahindra.
The new Faridabad facility, spread across six acres, developed partially with a Rs25 crore investment, will assemble around 200 specialized vehicles for the Armed Forces, paramilitary forces and police for the current fiscal, taking the number to 350 in the next.
It will also produce bullet-proof versions of the company’s Scorpio and Bolero multi-utility vehicles.
“In first phase, we have developed shopfloor of 40,000 square feet for building bullet-proof, riot control, armoured vehicles and armoured tourist buses. In the second phase, we will develop another 40,000 square feet and build the high mobility vehicle ‘AXE’ and mine-protection vehicles that are being developed in collaboration with BAE Systems from South Africa,” MDS chief executive Brigadier (Retd) Khutub Hai said to The Times of India. The plant has a capacity to roll out 500 armoured vehicles annually.
The Economic Times reported that Mahindra and Mahindra said it could develop a vehicle on the lines of US President Barack Obama’s official car nicknamed ‘The Devil’ for the country’s political leadership if the necessary facilities existed here.
“I saw the diagram (of the car) and it had complete details of President Obama’s Cadillac limousine. If this facility exists then we would be proud to make such vehicle not just for the Prime Minister but for any VIP,” Mahindra Group Vice Chairman and Managing Director Anand Mahindra told reporters after inaugurating the Special Military Vehicles (SMV) plant in Faridabad.