Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL) said on Wednesday it had decided to initiate processes to partially shift production of its best-selling car, the new Swift, to the Gurgaon plant to meet rising demand.
“The company has taken this decision to deliver Swift cars as soon as possible to customers, who have booked it and are waiting for the delivery. As the company is working with less manpower at the Manesar plant these days, the decision to make Swift both at Manesar and Gurgaon will help to raise the overall volume of Swift models,” MSIL said in a statement.
MSIL is considering transporting components from the weld shop at Manesar to assemble the Swift partly in Gurgaon. It has received 90,000 bookings for the new car that was launched on August 17. The new Swift was originally planned to be produced at the Manesar unit. MSIL, in fact, stalled production for a month in July to increase the capacity to manufacture 17,000-18,000 units of the new Swift, from the earlier monthly average of 12,000 units.
However, production has come to a near standstill since the fresh face-off with workers on August 29. MSIL produced 435 cars last week. This week, production has increased to 675 units, which includes the 250 units rolled out from the Manesar unit on Wednesday.
MSIL hired another 20 technicians, taking the total workforce available at the facility to 870. This includes the 90 engineers deputed from the Gurgaon plant and 290 supervisors.