The government of Haryana signed an agreement with Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) concerning the allotment of 700 acres to the latter for setting up state-of-the-art and the country’s largest automobile research and development centre to be set by the MSIL.

The agreement was signed by Managing Director of the MSIL Shinzo Nakanishi and MD, HSIDC, Rajiv Arora in the presence of Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

As per the agreement, the Haryana State Industrial Development Corporation will transfer the land to the MSIL. The R&D centre is expected to generate large-scale employment as well business in the region.

Meanwhile, Maruti Suzuki, the largest subsidiary for Japan’s Suzuki Motors, also announced that it would invest between Rs 1,000 crore to Rs 1,500 crore for the facility that will be spread over a 700-acre area and is likely to be ready in the next 5-7 years.

Speaking on this, Maruti MD, S Nakanishi said: “This facility in Rohtak would be a big step forward in building R&D capability, and enable us to offer superior products to our customers in the future as well.”

The company feels that the new facility would significantly boost the testing as well as new model development capability of Maruti. Moreover, it will also trim down its heavy dependence on parent Suzuki for vital support in these areas.

Notably, Maruti has a R&D centre at Gurgaon and employs around 700 engineers there.