Anantapur: Kia complies with Jagan govt's 75 per cent job norm

Erramanchi (Anantapur district): South Korean carmaker Kia Motors, which established it's greenfield manufacturing plant at Erramanchi village, said that it offered over 85 per cent of jobs at the plant to locals. Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy inaugurated the plant on Thursday.

"We offered very high percentage of jobs to locals. Locals account for over 85 per cent of jobs in our plant now," said Manohar Bhat, Head-Sales & Marketing, Kia Motors India. Recently, the Jagan government enacted a law mandating 75 per cent jobs in private sector to locals.

The Kia project in which Kia Motors and its vendors invested close 2.1 billion dollars has generated 12,000 new direct and indirect jobs. Kia built the AP plant with a total capacity of 3 lakh vehicles per annum. However, it is operating the plant in two shifts now, which will help it produce 2 lakh vehicles a year.

On the new model launches, Bhat said Kia would launch Carnival, a multipurpose vehicle, in February next year, followed by a 'made-for-India' sub-compact model six months later.

"We stick to our stated course of launching a new model every six months. We will be able to use the entire capacity of 3 lakh units if we have three to four models in our lineup. We are working towards that," he maintained.

According to him, the bookings for Carnival MPV, which will be available in seven and eight-seats configurations, will start next month. The model will be displayed at AutoExpo 2019 in February.

Kia Seltos SUV, the maiden model from Kia India, evoked overwhelming response and received over 70,000 bookings since its launch in August this year. So far, the automaker delivered 40,000 units of the SUV.