Four-day week at Bajaj Akurdi plant

In a bid to cut losses due to a steep fall in two-wheeler demand, Bajaj Auto has announced a four-day week at its Akurdi plant, near Pune, from September 1.

Although company officials were not available for comment, it is believed that this is the start of a process to shut down the Akurdi plant.

At the company's annual general meeting in July, Bajaj Auto Managing Director Rajeev Bajaj had said that the production at Akurdi which was declining, had fallen from 3,50,000 in 2005-06 to 50,000 in 2006-07.

Bajaj also told shareholders that it was not easy to shut down a plant of a profit-making company and that attempts to persuade workers to accept a voluntary retirement scheme would go on. "We will do something about it (the plant)," he had said.

Bajaj Auto has been reducing the number of employees at Akurdi through a series of voluntary retirement schemes over the past eight years. The workforce now stands at about 2,000 from about 4,500 some years ago.

Motorcycles are being manufactured at plants at Valuj near Aurangabad, Chakan near Pune and Pant Nagar in Uttarakhand. Krystal "� the only scooter under its belt now "� is made at Akurdi.

The company's three-wheeler production comes mainly from Waluj and a smaller number comes from Pant Nagar.