UK firm keen to make electric SUV vehicles in Pondy: Minister

London-based Laureti Automotive Corporation has evinced interest to set up its unit here to
make electric SUV vehicles. Puducherry Industries and Transport Minister M O H F
Shah Jahan announced this Friday while inaugurating a one-day workshop on ''Smart Mobility: Puducherry Forward'' organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here. The London company would have an initial capacity to manufacture 10,000 electric SUV vehicles per annum with an investment of around Rs 2,800 crore, he said.

Laureti would expand production in the next stages, he said. Puducherry government has at its disposal around 350-acre site in Karaikal region, which could be made available to the company, the Minister said. The initiative of Laureti would be of help for Puducherry to meet the current challenges in the traffic and mobility sector, he said. Soon, a delegation of the UK company would hold talks with the territorial administration, the Minister said.

Traffic management was a big challenge for the government, as there were around nine lakh vehicles on road in the Union Territory, he said. All strategies drawn up to manage the traffic were not cutting ice, and even the proposal to make helmet-wearing compulsory was meeting with resistance, he said. "We should go in for an effective masterplan to manage the traffic," he said. Officials of CII also spoke on the occasion.

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