Maruti Suzuki to invest Rs 7,410 crore to set up 3rd factory at Haryana’s Kharkhoda

New Delhi, (IANS): India's largest carmaker, Maruti Suzuki Ltd, on Wednesday announced an investment of Rs 7,410 crore to build a third factory at Kharkhoda in Haryana, to expand production capacity to meet the rising domestic demand as well as exports.The company's Board of Directors at a meeting held on Wednesday approved the establishment of a third plant at Kharkhoda, which will have a production capacity of 2.5 lakh vehicles per year, Maruti Suzuki said in a stock exchange filing.The factory is expected to start production by 2029 taking the total capacity at Kharkhoda to 7.5 lakh vehicles a year.The investment will be funded through internal accruals. The Kharkhoda plant is a greenfield project where the first factory started commercial operations in February this year to produce the compact SUV Brezza.Suzuki Motor Corporation of Japan, the parent company of Maruti Suzuki India, had last month announced a new mid-term plan with a "rethink" in its strategy as "the business environment has changed due to declining market share in India" and the growing electric vehicles segment.In its new mid-term plan for 2025-30, the company has identified India as its “most important market.” Maruti Suzuki aims to create a manufacturing capacity of producing 4 million cars annually to reclaim a 50 per cent market share in India and use the country as a global export hub as well.The auto major plans to expand its EV lineup starting with...
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EDF may get state loan for six new reactors

The Penly site in Normandy, northern France, where the first pair of EPR2 reactors is planned (Image: EDF)France's Nuclear Policy Council - headed by President Emmanuel Macron - has agreed that a subsidised government loan should be issued to state-owned power utility EDF to cover at least half the construction costs of six EPR2 reactors.In February 2022, Macron announced that the time was right for a nuclear renaissance in France, saying the operation of all existing reactors should be extended without compromising safety and unveiling a proposed programme for six new EPR2 reactors, with an option for a further eight EPR2 reactors to follow. The first three pairs of EPR2 reactors are proposed to be built, in order, at the Penly, Gravelines and Bugey sites. Construction is expected to start in 2027. The cost was originally estimated at EUR51.7 billion (USD56.4 billion), but this was revised to EUR67.4 billion in 2023.The EPR2 reactor is a pressurised water reactor project developed by EDF and Framatome. It meets the general safety objectives of the third generation of reactors. Its aim is to incorporate design, construction and commissioning experience feedback from the EPR reactor, as well as operating experience from the nuclear reactors currently in service.At a 17 March meeting, the Nuclear Policy Council (CPN) "examined the main principles of the financing and regulatory framework" for the construction of the six EPR2s,...
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