The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : MLR to roll out car by ’09

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Wednesday, Aug 20, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

MLR to roll out car by ’09

A. Saye Sekhar

Commercial production to begin by January 2010

IPR bought from Fiat for B-segment platform
900 cc petrol, 1,500 diesel versions to be manufactured

HYDERABAD: MLR Motors will roll out its first car as proposed, by mid-2009 from its Toopran plant, in spite of the general economic slowdown and spiralling prices of steel and cement.

“Compared to the period when a barrel of crude had cost US $14, there is a manifold rise in the number of cars. There may be a slowdown in car sales, but the hike in oil and steel prices will not affect the industry,” said Managing Director of MLR Motors M. Lokeswara Rao, in an interview. He asserted that the commercial production of cars would begin by January 2010.

The ‘speedbreakers’

Of course, every thing is not hunky dory for him. He is, in fact, driving on a road with speedbreakers when it comes to clearances. “We have acquired 225 acres. But I am running from pillar to post for permission to raze a hillock. I have decided to set up the project just because Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy has encouraged me. But I cannot go to him for all and sundry. Perhaps Andhra Pradesh is the only State which doesn’t have a single window. Why do you think Hyundai, General Motors, Volkswagen and BMW preferred other States? It’s not just the availability of ancillary units that prompted them to go there,” he observed.

Soon after the test-vehicle is produced next year, it would be sent for critical examination, including the crash test at Automobile Research Institute in Pune. The initial investment in the project was scaled down from Rs. 1,250 crore to Rs. 1,065 crore, because the flagship company, Lokesh Machines Ltd would pick up an equity of Rs. 200 crore, he disclosed.

The IPR (intellectual property rights) was bought from Fiat for B-segment platform and the company partnered another European company for restyling and redesigning. “Top-brass of the European company visited the site three times. The level of confidence they reposed in MLR Motors is far more than the response I am getting from the government officials,” he said. The company proposes to manufacture 900 CC petrol and 1,500 CC diesel versions of cars. It is close to achieving financial closure in a 50-50 debt-equity model, said Mr. Rao.

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