After the lethal disaster caused by labour unrest at Maruti Suzuki‘s Manesar plant earlier on July 18 had led to lock out of the plant on July 21. The abrupt closure of the plant has already resulted in production losses of around 27,000 vehicles in 19 working days. In terms of money, the company is losing Rs. 75 Crores each day amounting to Rs. 1,400 Crores so far.
Earlier the company decided to continue accept bookings and as a result the backlog of Swift and Swift DZire have crossed 1.4 Lakhs Units till Friday evening. Now, according to Mr. S. Y. Siddiqui, Chief Operating Officer, Maruti Suzuki India, the company has deferred any decision regarding lifting the lockout and resuming production till Friday (Aug 17).
Mr. Siddiqui said: “We may be able to complete the total assessment of the situation at the Manesar plant by Friday and expect a clear picture to emerge regarding the reopening of the plant by then”. Top management executives of the company had a meet on Monday’s (Aug 13) afternoon to discuss issues like the extent of damage at the plant, state of employees injured in the violence and findings on the investigation into the incident.
On condition of anonymity, a person said: “There is no extensive damage to any of the critical facilities like the press shop or the assembly lines. The plant is capable of producing cars with some changes needed in the plant machinery that could be gradually done as the production increases and stabilizes”.
Mr. R. C. Bhargava, Chairman, Maruti Suzuki India, told Reuters: “Our position is exactly the same to what we said in the beginning, that we will decide on a date of opening when we are satisfied that safety and security of all our employees is ensured”.
By,
Arghya Pan
Team MotorBash
News Source: Economic Times
