With investments running into billions of dollars and a new national automotive testing and R&D facility, the Tamil Nadu capital, Chennai, has established itself as the acknowledged automotive and auto components manufacturing hub of the country.

At the inauguration of Rieter Automotive Systems and Nihon Tokushu Toryo's (Nittoku) newest plant at the SIPCOT Industrial Growth Center in Oragadam, near Chennai, on October 6, 2010, Ralph Ruthner, CEO, Rieter Nittoku Automotive Sound Products India (Rieter Nittoku), said, "Chennai is already well known as the center of the Indian auto industry, and it will become a global automotive production hub, thanks to the openness of the government of Tamil Nadu." Indications are that Chennai is well on its way to achieving that distinction. According to the Tamil Nadu Industry Secretary Rajeev Ranjan, about $3 bn will be invested in Chennai by the global car manufacturers by the end of FY2010-11. With that kind of investment, which is higher than what other auto hubs like Gurgaon in Haryana have attracted, and a new national testing-R&D facility, Chennai has not only emerged as India's Detroit, but is also all set to put India on the global auto map.

While the total installed capacity in and around Chennai is expected to be 1.28 million cars a year by the end of FY2010-11, it is bound to go up further what with new projects by Ford, Hyundai, BMW, Renault-Nissan and Mitsubishi-HM coming up in the city and its suburbs. Says a beaming Rajeev Ranjan: "Every third car produced in India is from in and around Chennai."

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