India's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki will produce over a million cars this fiscal enabling

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the company to cross the milestone for the first time, its parent Suzuki Motor Corporation (SMC) said today.

"Maruti Suzuki now forecasts production of 10,27,000 units for the fiscal year from April 2009 to March 2010, meaning that its production will exceed one million units on both a calendar-year basis and a fiscal-year basis for the first time," SMC said in a statement on its website.

Maruti Suzuki, produced 9,66,069 cars from January to December 2009, up 27 per cent from the year ago, it added.

In expectation of continued growth in the Indian car market, MSI will invest Rs 1,700 crore in new facilities at its Manesar plant to increase an annual output to 550,000 units from the current 300,000 units, the statement said.

"The new facilities are scheduled to start operating in spring 2012. As a result, MSI will have annual production capacity of 1.25 million units (700,000 units at its Gurgaon plant; 550,000 units at its Manesar plant," it said.

SMC, which now holds 54.2 per cent stake in Maruti Suzuki, started car production in India with the Maruti 800 in 1983, when the car market was about 100,000 units per year. It had partnered the Indian government in an erstwhile join- venture Maruti Udyog Ltd. It became the majority shareholder when the government exited from the JV.

Today MSI commands 55 per cent share in the market, which has grown to over 1.5 million units per annum. The company sell popular models including, Alto, Estilo, Wagon R, Swift, Dzire and the SX4.