Honda inaugurates new plant in Karnataka

Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) has inaugurated its third manufacturing plant in India at Narsapura Area in the Kolar district of Karnataka. The total investment in the new plant is ₹ 1,350 crore.

Present at the inauguration ceremony were Yoshiyuki Matsumoto, managing officer, Honda Motor Company and representative of development, purchasing and manufacturing, Asia Oceania Region; Keita Muramatsu, president and CEO, HMSI; Yadvinder Singh Guleria, vice-president (sales and marketing), HMSI; and Muniyappa, union minister of state for medium and small scale industry, government of India.

Starting operations from June 2013, the state-of-the-art plant has a manufacturing capacity of 12 lakh units in Phase 1. An additional increase of 600,000 units in Phase 2 will augment the new plant's total capacity to 18 lakh by the end of 2013-14. As a result, HMSI's cumulative annual capacity from three plants will stand increased by 64 percent to 4.6 million units per annum.

The Karnataka plant, spread across 96 acres, is claimed to be Honda's most environmentally responsible plant. It proactively reduces energy consumption during production. Honda says it has been successful in meeting over 30 percent of its annual water demand with an internal rain harvesting system. The facility also has zero liquid discharge.

To make this unit a manufacturing benchmark, HMSI has employed more advanced machining automation, a high speed transfer line, and robotic welding and painting of frame parts.