Say Goodbye To Long Waiting Periods Come 2013 Royal Enfield To Set Up New Plant Off Chennai

Indian lifestyle motorcycle maker, Royal Enfield has finally shown some real resolve to solve the long standing waiting period issue which has forced many a prospective Royal Enfield motorcycle buyer to either endure long waits before the motorcycle is delivered or in many cases settle for some other motorcycle.

But the fact remains that Royal Enfield motorcycles have a charm of their own, unmatched by many modern motorcycles, and thus many prospective Royal Enfield owners, smitten by the aura of the motorcycle,  choose to endure long waiting periods.  All that is now set to change as the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Miss J Jayalalithaa has allotted 50 acres to Royal Enfield in Oragadam, off Chennai.
The Chief Minister handed over the land allotment letter to Mr Siddharta Lal, managing director and CEO of Eicher Limited, the parent company of Royal Enfield.  It is here that Royal Enfield will construct a brand new facility, which will then allow the motorcycle maker to rapidly scale up capacity, to a whopping 1,50,000 units, thus solving the critical issue of long waiting periods that it’s motorcycles currently come saddled with.

Royal Enfield is investing a sum of INR 350 Crore to build a new production facility at Oragadam. The capacity of 1,50,000 motorcycles a year, will triple Royal Enfield’s current production, which stands at 50,000 units a year. This production boost is expected to serve both the export and the domestic market. If all goes well, you’d actually be able to buy a Royal Enfield motorcycle of your choice, off the shelf come 2013.

Amongst other things, this is the second big ticket automobile sector investment, after the Peugeot India plant, approved by the new Tamil Nadu government led by AIADMK’s J. Jayalalithaa. Incidentally, Tamil Nadu seems to have pipped Andhra Pradesh, which was another front runner, to get Royal Enfield to set up their second production facility.

With this latest move from Royal Enfield, Tamil Nadu continues to be an attractive investment destination for the automobile sector even as Gujarat is playing catch up. It would be quite interesting to see how the new Tamil Nadu government manages to retain existing players and attract more automakers even as the Indian government has announced two major automobile hubs for central and east India.