JK Ty­r­es has indicated that it would expedite the Rs 1,500 crore green-field ex­pansion project near Che­nnai and aim to commission the tyre plant by October next year in view of the strong demand growth in the domestic market on the back of soaring vehicle sales volume.

“Tyre manufacturing is capital-intensive project. If we achieve the commissioning of the plant by October 2011, it will be good,” Raghupati Singhania, VC & MD, J K Tyre said.

Ruling out the claims that there was shortage of tyres, he claimed that reluctance of OEMs to accept the price revisions for tyres has translated into ‘perceived shortage’.

Singhania highlighted that the firm had embark­ed on over Rs 2,000 crore capacity expansion progr­amme including Ch­ennai to ramp-up the capacity, taking the output to 1.55 crore tyres a year by 2012.

The Chennai pla­nt will have capacity to make 50 lakh passenger car radials and six lakh truck and bus radials. “Tamil Nadu is emerging as auto hub and we want to be part of that,” said Singhania.