Suzuki head apologizes for Maruti Manesar violence

Production at Maruti Suzuki Manesar plant resumed after over a month of lockout declared by the company due to violence and arson at the plant on July 16th. This left one senior official dead and many others injured. The plant declared a lockout thereafter and has only restarted production operations in a phased manner since Tuesday.

Osamu Suzuki, Head, Suzuki Motors, visited the the Manesar plant and apologized for the violence. The company has stated that they will return to normal operations soon but have not confirmed whether this will take 15 days or a month due to the fact that management is still bogged down with pressure from Trade Unions to restore over 500 workers who were sacked due to direct involvement with the violence on that fateful day.

Rumors were rife about the company shifting to a new location but these were quashed by Haryana Industries Minister Randeep Singh Surejwala who stated that these rumors were baseless and that the company was going ahead with the investment of Rs.1700 crores to set up a new C Plant at Manesar Unit itself. Maruti Suzuki Chairman, R C Bhargava, has confirmed this. Maruti Suzuki is also in the process of coming up with an new R&D Centre which is slated to be the largest in Asia, along with a track and testing facility all in Manesar.

Workers attendance is also increasing gradually at the Maesar plant. Mr Bhargava said that currently the attendance is between 700 to 1000, but he is sure that very soon every worker will rejoin. Production too is expected to resume to full capacity in the coming weeks. Maruti Suzuki will be manufacturing 700,000 diesel engines annually by 2014. Mr Bhargava said that they are planning on increasing their output of diesel engines even further.