New Delhi, Sep 13 (IANS) India now has become the seventh largest vehicle producing country in the world, a top government official said Monday.
‘India was projected to become the seventh largest vehicle producing country in the world by 2016. We have achieved this milestone good six years ahead of the set target,’ said B S Meena, Secretary for Ministry of Heavy Industry, while speaking at the a roundtable conference here.
He also said the sector has performed extremely well in the period up to August with cumulative production of vehicles growing at 32.4 percent over the same period last year.
‘While globally the automotive sector is still to recover fully from the downturn, we in India have been recording impressive growth figures. In fact, India was the second fastest growing auto market in 2009-10’, he said.
According to him, the passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles and two-wheeler segments have all recorded growth rates of 32 percent, 49 percent and 31 percent respectively during this period.
Meena also said that it is estimated that the Indian passenger vehicles segment will grow to nine million in 2020 and the two-wheeler segment by 30 million units.
‘The realization of these volumes would position India as one of the top five vehicle producing countries in the world by 2020 with the domestic consumption growing by four-folds to Rs.5.6 Lakh crore (120 billion dollars),’ He added.
According to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), the country had produced 14,049,830 units of automobiles including two and three wheelers.
–Indo-Asian News Serrvice
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