3.3.6. Automobile Industry

Before independence, assembling of foreign made vehicles was done in India. The real development of the industry began with the setting up of two auto mobile units: (I) Premier Automobiles (Mumbai) in 1947, and (ii) Hindustan Motors Ltd. (Kolkata), in 1948. As steel is the basic raw material for this industry, it tends to be located near iron and steel producing; centres. Port cities are preferred due to import and export facilities. The centres producing tyres, tubes, batteries, paints, etc. provide an added advantage. Recently, the trend has been to locate the automobile manufacturing units near the market.