Chennai, Sep 3 - Car manufacturer Ford India Pvt Ltd, which is doubling its production capacity to 200,000 units a year and setting up a 250,000 units engine-and-power train plant near here at an outlay of $500 million has started hiring fresh hands, said a top company official Thursday.

'We have already hired 400 new hands, taking the total workforce in the factory to around 2,000. We are in the process of adding more so that the expanded capacity goes on stream early 2010,' Michael Boneham, president and managing director, told reporters.

According to Boneham, the notable aspect of the investments in the plant is the increased level of automation through robotics, new stamping press line, new paint process so as to become a strategic global production hub for the parent Ford Motor Company.

'The new plant will make us competitive with Indian manufacturers and give Indian customers a better product than ever,' said Tom S. Chackalackal, vice president-manufacturing.

The competitiveness will be from a combination of increased localisation, automation and defect free vehicles.