Bajaj cuts price of Platina by Rs 3,000

New Delhi, Apr 9: Bajaj Auto Ltd has announced Rs 3,000 cut on its Platina model, leveraging the excise and income tax benefits from its fourth plant inaugurated today at Pantnagar, Uttarakhand, The vehicle will now be available at Rs 33,000 (es-showroom).

''The new standards in manufacturing efficiency together with the incentives for new investment in Uttarakhand has enabled Bajaj Auto to reduce the cost of production and offer even better value to its customers. Bajaj Platina, which has already sold seven lakh bikes, post its April 2006 launch, will be the first product to roll out of our new Pantnagar plant. This additional capacity will enable us to meet the demand for the Platina,'' Bajaj Auto Vice President (Marketing and Sales) S Sridhar said.

The Pantanagar plant has a capacity of one million motorcycles per annum which can be progressively expanded to three million vehicles.

The unit is built over 30 acres of land incurring an investment of Rs 150 crore.

The investment cost is around Rs 1,500 per vehicle and enable one of the shortest payback periods for the plant, the company said.

The facility will be supported by manufacturing units of 16 auto component vendors in the immediate proximity. These cluster suppliers will meet 75 per cent of the component requirement of the new plant.

They would be operating as the extended factory of the core Bajaj Auto mother plant.

Bajaj Auto Chairman Rahul Bajaj said, ''We wish to compliment the Uttarakhand state on its excellent investment environment. This is our first manufacturing foray outside Maharashtra, with the best of manufacturing technology and processes. I am proud to inaugurate this new plant which sets new benchmarks in automobile manufacturing.'' ''Over 50 per cent of our domestic two-wheeler sales comes from the northern and eastern regions. Our Pantnagar plant will also enable us to faster meet the needs of our customers in this region,'' Mr Sridhar said.

According to the company, this new manufacturing concept is expected to yield 10 times the productivity of other comparable two-wheeler units.

This partnership will see manufacturing and supply of key components including speedometres from Pricol, front fork and suspension from Endurance, lighting systems from Lumax, plastic and electrical components from Varroc, control switches and ignition systems from Minda group and frames from JBM.

UNI