Project monitor reported that automobile giant General Motors is expected to sign a MoU with Maharashtra government to set up a power train manufacturing facility near its Talegaon plant in Pune. The INR 1,200 crore unit will manufacture engines and gear boxes with a capacity of 200,000 units per year.

Meanwhile, GM is scheduled to begin commercial operations at its new car manufacturing facility at Talegaon in September. Set up with an investment of INR 1,400 crore, the plant will manufacture 140,000 small cars including Chevrolet Spark. Trial production began in March this year.

As per the report, work on Talegaon plant began in late 2006 following an MoU signed with Maharashtra government in August that year. The Talegaon project is one of the largest Greenfield investments Maharashtra has attracted in recent history.

The report added that once Talegaon facility goes fully commercial, GM which began Indian operations in 1996 will have a total capacity of 225,000 cars per year. GM's only other manufacturing unit at Halol in Gujarat recently underwent an expansion in capacity from 65,000 cars to 85,000 cars per year.