Seventy-odd km north-west of its mother plant in Gurgaon in Haryana, about 220 engineers from Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL) are engrossed in designing, developing and evaluating vehicles to ensure the leading carmaker delivers products that are durable, efficient and most importantly, safe. Once completed, this state-of-the-art R&D facility in Rohtak will be one of the most advanced R&D facilities in India and amongst the top facilities in Asia, claims the company. We were recently invited to the facility for a detailed understanding of how the centre functions. Here’s what we learnt.
When Maruti Suzuki India was scouting for land to set-up its planned R&D centre in India, one of the foremost requirements was a piece of land that allowed the company to build a two km-long straight track. The 700 acre site MSIL found in Rohtak had the right ingredients required to develop a world-class R&D facility. Two years after the allotment of land, work at the facility commenced in June 2011.
The first phase of development at the Rohtak facility was completed in November 2015, while the second phase is scheduled to be completed by March 2019. An additional investment of ₹ 1,900 cr has been lined-up, taking the total investment in the facility to ₹ 3,800 cr. By then, 10-12 new facilities will be added to the existing infrastructure, which currently has a full-fledged vehicle testing lab, a crash lab, 31 types of test tracks, spanned over 31 km of tracks in overall length.
By 2019, when the centre becomes fully operational, MSIL is looking at adding labs to test transmissions, engines, electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) and emissions, among others.
Spread over a 600-acre campus, Maruti is looking at making this integrated R&D centre an integral tool in its objective of becoming an end-to-end manufacturer, thus reducing dependence on its parent company, Suzuki Motor Corporation. CV Raman, Executive Director (Engineering), MSIL said the company is looking to develop the entire product development capability of product design and development to validation and testing. In the future, the Rohtak centre will also service Suzuki’s global requirements, including Europe and Japan.
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