MUMBAI: India’s largest car maker Maruti Suzuki is trying to advance production from its Gujarat facility by three to six months since the Gurgaon and Manesar plant in the NCR region will reach optimum capacity by the middle of next year, said five people aware of the matter. The carmaker, ET has learnt, is keen to start production from Gujarat in January 2017 instead of May. The construction of the factory is under way. RC Bhargava, chairman of Maruti Suzuki, corroborated the plan to ET without going into specific timelines. He said that the effort is to start the project soon and keep the cost down as far as possible. “In 2017, we will need the Gujarat plant and work is on in full swing there,” Bhargava had told shareholders at the AGM last week. Gaurav Vangaal, senior analyst with IHS Automotive, said this is a significant step towards meeting its target of 2 million annual sales by the end of the decade. “Given the environment, the tilt and preference towards Maruti is very high in the market and it wants to make the most of this. The company has been nimbler than ever before, be it with new capacity or new products, and several steps faster than market. There seems to be a strong resolve to achieve the mid-term goal, but they need to ensure that quality isn’t compromised,” said Vangaal. The first project from Gujarat is expected to be YRA or the Baleno premium hatchback which is likely to be exported from the western state. Also, the new generation Swift and Swift Dzire, codenamed YSD, which offers healthy margins to the company, is also likely to be made at Gujarat. Maruti intends to make 4.5 lakh units of the new-generation Swift and Dzire annually, and the production of these models are likely to be shared across factories. People in the industry say that this is a new phase for Suzuki in India. Apart from the new factory, Maruti’s bread-and-butter models — Swift and Dzire — will also get a makeover, powered by an all-new 1.5 litre Suzuki diesel engine at the heart.