Maruti Suzuki India Ltd has just completed a programme to ramp up capacity at its fourth and newest plant at Manesar. By the end of March, the company will be able to roll out 1.7 lakh units per annum from this facility, up 70 per cent from the installed capacity.

The enhanced production capacity will also be used to roll out DZire, the sedan version of the Swift, that is due to be launched later this month. The plant, which attained full capacity within weeks of its commissioning in Feb 2007, is currently manufacturing at 120 per cent of its installed capacity and rolls out the Swift (both diesel and petrol variants) and the SX4 sedan. With the enhanced capacity, the waiting period for the Swift, which is two to three months will come down.

The capacity expansion at Manesar is also timed for Suzuki's fifth world strategic model, A-Star, that will be rolled out in October this year. By January 2009, exports of this model will take off. By 2010, Maruti Suzuki aims to increase capacity to 3,00,000 cars at this plant.