New Delhi, Feb. 19: Maruti Udyog, the country’s top carmaker, plans to set up a new car manufacturing facility in Haryana to meet the rising demand for its models.

Maruti, which is 54.2 per cent owned by Japan’s Suzuki Motor Corporation, said its management is exploring the possibility of setting up a greenfield car manufacturing facility.

“The matter has been taken up with the Haryana government to ascertain the availability of land and related infrastructure,” a company statement said.

The statement, however, did not specify the production capacity of the proposed plant or funding required. Maruti’s existing plant in Gurgaon has a current production capacity of 3.5 lakh units which can be stepped up to 5 lakh units.

“Once details of the state government’s response are available, a proposal will be placed before the board,” it said.

Analysts said the proposed plant fits into Suzuki’s broader plan to use the Indian facility as an export hub to service the small car market in Europe and carry out research and development for small cars to be sold outside Japan.

Suzuki plans to invest around Rs 432 crore ($94 million) over the next three to five years to introduce new vehicles, increase automation and reduce headcount.

The automaker, which has a 47 per cent market share, grew at a slower pace than its industry peers in 2003-04. While, in the first 10 months, Maruti rose 30.2 per cent to 3.77 lakh units, industry sales jumped 31.4 per cent.

Company officials, however, said the automaker expects to sell between 4.6 lakh to 4.7 lakh units in 2004-05.

The former state-run firm, which listed in July after a blockbuster initial public offering of shares, currently retails 11 models of which one is imported as a fully-built unit from Japan.