BS reported that Japanese carmaker Honda Siel Cars India is ramping up the capacity of its manufacturing plant at Greater Noida by 20%. The unit’s existing capacity will be raised to 120,000 cars per annum in the current financial year.

Mr Raman Kumar Sharma SVP & director of HSCI said that "This additional in capacity would only involve minor investment."

The Greater Noida unit was set up in 1997 with an investment of INR 450 crore. Till date, the company has invested INR 1,620 crore. HSCI's second manufacturing facility is located at Rajasthan's Tapukara spread over 600 acres. It will have initial production capacity of 60,000 units per annum with an investment of INR 1,000 crore. The first phase of the plant was launched in September 2008.

Meanwhile, the company is also working on launching diesel variants of its cars.

Mr Sharma said that "We are working on the diesel variant. It would be difficult to put a definite date to its launch now." He added that the company wants to increase its retail presence to 143 dealerships from 135 at present by year end.

(Sourced from www.business-standard.com)