Bangalore: Maruti Suzuki, one of the largest car makers in India are planning to hire about 3,000 employees in the next four months to support their 200 new service centers that will be set up across India at the end of the fiscal year. Maruthi also plans to expand another 3,040 service centers after the initial expansion. With this expansion, Maruti hopes to have a service centre within 25 km of every Maruti car owner. It will also strengthen its service network, especially in south India. The new recruits will account for over 10 per cent of Maruti's current workforce of over 33,000 employees. Pankaj Narula, executive officer (service), Maruti, said, "We expect to sell around 1.2 million cars by the end of the fiscal. To service the increased number of cars and also take care of our existing customers effectively, we have designed a programme to establish 200 centres across the country. This year, the maximum number of service outlets will come up in southern states." Maruthi, is facing a lot of competition from several international carmakers, which are set to launch new small cars. Making Maruthi run for its money, Toyota is launching the Etios sedan priced at Rs 5-5.5 lakh. Toyota will also launch the Etios hatchback in January next year, priced at an aggressive Rs 4.3-4.8 lakh. The two cars are tough competitors for Maruti's Swift and Swift Dzire. Maruti sells about 23,000 units of these two models, which constitutes about a fifth of sales and is key to its bottom line. Since Maruthi is always known for its economy cars, carmakers like Hyundai and General Motors who are working on small and economical cars will pose threat to Maruthi.