North East
The facility in Sanand presently employs 3043 people directly and 20,000 people indirectly.
Digital Desk: Tata Passenger Electric Mobility Limited (TPEML), a Tata Motors subsidiary, inked a tripartite memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Ford India Private Limited and the Gujarat government on Monday for the ownership of Ford's passenger car production unit in the Sanand.
The memorandum was signed between the Gujarat government's Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) - Industries, Rajiv Kumar Gupta, Tata Passenger Electric Mobility Managing Director, Shailesh Chandra and Balasundaram Radhakrishnan, Ford India Pvt. Ltd.'s Transformation Officer and Country Head.
Ford India's Sanand factory now has the capacity to produce electric cars (EVs) by Tata Motors' subsidiary TPEML.
According to the chief minister's office, the MoU also includes the continuance of the state support agreement agreed between the Gujarat government and Ford India Pvt. Ltd. in 2011, which now includes Tata Passenger Electric Mobility Limited (CMO).
As part of the agreement, Tata Motors will take over Ford India Pvt. Ltd.'s land, plant construction, machinery, vehicle assembly, and all the employees working in the plant. The facility in Sanand presently employs 3043 people directly and 20,000 people indirectly.
Out of 460 acres of land, Ford India's vehicle assembly factory occupies 350 acres, while the engine manufacturing plant occupies 110 acres. But, Ford India will continue to produce engines at Tata Motors' Sanand facility, which will be leased to the company. As a result, the two occupants will share the water, power, effluent treatment facility and other amenities.
As per the CMO, the entire acquisition procedure was completed in 90 days, mainly due to Gujarat's "positive approach" led by chief minister Bhupendra Patel.
"The MoU also addresses a potential big unemployment situation at the Sanand factory. Otherwise, the plant's shutdown would have directly or indirectly resulted in the layoff of roughly 25,000 workers. Furthermore, ancillary operations that provided spare components to the mill would have been forced to close, putting their employees out of work," CMO said.
"The acquisition of a foreign firm like Ford India by an Indian company like Tata Motors is also in sync with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Aatmanirbhar Bharat, and Gujarat has taken a step in that direction," the statement added.
Tata Motors had previously contacted the state government with a proposal to buy Ford India's Sanand facility, which had recently secured a cabinet no-objection certificate.
Apart from engines, employees at the Sanand plant made spare components for Ford cars when passenger cars were terminated.
On the other hand, the corporation had set an internal deadline for the vehicle facility to manufacture spare components for warranty replacements until March 2022.
Ford was in talks with companies including Ola and Mahindra & Mahindra last year about contract manufacturing or selling both factories, but those talks fell through, resulting in the closure announcement.
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