Ashok Leyland is likely to commence the construction work for its greenfield factory in Uttar Pradesh early next  financial year (FY). The Hinduja flagship has proposed to invest Rs 1,000 crore over some time.

The upcoming integrated manufacturing unit will come up partially on the site of the now-defunct Scooters India in Lucknow, and the site is close to the airport. The company seeks to finalise the land area before the end of this FY and the construction work is expected to commence within a couple of months later.

The investment in the project will be made by Ashok Leyland and the factory will cater to the requirements of both Ashok Leyland and Switch Mobility, the electric vehicle (EV) arm of the company. Further, the new factory in the state is expected to give further fillip to the company’s pan-India growth strategy.

While the company will would need to develop some suppliers for the new factory, there are already a host of suppliers, which has been running a factory in Lucknow. Also, some of Ashok Leyland’s suppliers are either based at Pantnagar (Uttarakhand) or Alwar (Rajasthan).