plant Car body paintshop Engine plant Final Assembly plant On 28 July 2011, Ford announced a deal to invest Rs 40 billion (U$906m) to build a plant in Sanand. The plant, spread over 460 acres, will have a capacity to make 240,000 cars/year and 270,000 engines/year. 5000 people will be employed at the plant, another 25,000 indirectly and another 6000 in ancillary engineering, totalling 36,000 jobs. The 460 acres was leased to Ford for Rs 1100/square metre while the prevailing market rate in the area is Rs 4000/square metre. Gujarat was chosen as the location of the plant in order to cater to the demands of the burgeoning car markets of the North and North West of India.The President of Ford Asia-Pacific-Africa, Joe Hinrichs, said it takes 10 days to transport cars from its Chennai plant to Punjab. Sanand is on the Delhi-Mumbai freight corridor and can reach showrooms in northern states more quickly and cheaply. Construction of the plant is from end-2011 with car production to begin in 2014. Hitachi Ltd Hitachi Hi-Rel Power Electronics Pvt Ltd announced a 60:40 joint venture between Japanese electronics major, Hitachi Ltd and Hi-Rel Electronics Pvt Ltd, an Ahmedabad-based power electronics products maker, is setting up a manufacturing facility of power equipment at Sanand near Ahmedabad. Hitachi Hi-Rel is now a 100% Hitachi owned company. GE GE Power Systems India Private Limited (erstwhile Alstom Bharat Forge Power Private Limited) established a state of the art Steam Turbines and Generator manufacturing facility in 2013. It is a subsidiary of GE, the America-based global conglomerate. Manufacturing commenced in the year of 2015. The first turbine was dispatched from the factory in the month of June 2016 for Solapur Super Thermal Power Station, a coal fired power plat with two units of 660MW capacity each owned by NTPC and situated in the state of Maharashtra. The facility spans over an area of approximately 50 acres and is situated in the vicinity of Ford. Other industries The Indian pharmaceutical company Cadila Healthcare has a plant to make Generic Medicines at Moraiya within Sanand taluka. Indian Real Estate giants including DLF, Raheja, Parswanath are in talks to acquire large land area near Sanand to develop major townships close to Ahmedabad. Singapore Based Investment Fund Isobar Global Holdings PTE. LTD. along with Capitaland Trust of Singapore have reportedly acquired large land parcels within Sanand District. Industrial land availability The