Ceat is looking forward to doubling the capacity of its radial unit at Halol, in Panchmahal district of Gujarat.

The company will make an additional investment of Rs 630 crore to increase the capacity of the plant from its existing 130 tonne per day to 300 tonne per day. The greenfield facility in Halol, where it has already invested Rs 620 crore, will start operations by October 2014.

The board of directors of the company will soon approve the expansion project and will also finalise ways to fund the expansion plans. The raised funds will also be utilised in research and development (R&D) activities.

Further, plans are afoot to increase the capacity three-fold to 450 tonne per day in the next three to four years, entailing a cost of Rs 1,500 crore, which includes the investment in Phase-II of expansion. The plant produces four million tpa tyres in Phase I; a considerable portion of which will be radials for heavy truck, bus, light truck and passenger cars. This will be ramped up to 12 million tpa tyres over the years.

Ceat is also expanding its Nashik unit in Maharashtra by about 35 tonne per day.