Maruti assessing parts import from Japan; cancels celebrations

"There will not be any immediate affect on production. We are at present trying to assess if there will be any impact on long-term," Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) Managing Executive Officer (Marketing and Sales) Mayank Pareek told PTI.

The company usually has buffer stock of components for about two weeks and till then normal production will continue, he added.

Pareek declined to give further details saying till a complete assessment is carried out, nothing can commented on.

Meanwhile, the company cancelled the celebrations for rolling out the 1,00,00,000th car tomorrow in view of the devastating earthquake and tsunami on March 11 in Japan.

"This is a big tragedy on mankind. That is why we are not doing anything on our one crore production mark. We have cancelled everything, this is not the time to celebrate," MSI Chairman R C Bhargava said.

Some of MSI employees, who are at present working with Suzuki in its plant in Hamamatsu, are safe, he added.

Last week, he had said that MSI expected to achieve the feat of producing a crore vehicle for the second time in the next 6-7 years with the opening of its two new plants at Manesar.

Earlier in the day, Japanese auto major Honda had said it postponed the preview of its small car Brio in India scheduled for March 17 due to the natural disaster that hit the island nation last week.

Last week, compatriot Toyota had said it postponed the official inauguration of its second Indian manufacturing facility at Bangalore in view of the earthquake and tsunami.

On March 11, an earthquake measuring 8.9 on Richter's scale hit Japan that was followed by a devastating tsunami sweeping away houses, overturned ships, vehicles and set ablaze several buildings, including a petrochemical plant. It has left thousands of people dead or unaccounted for.

The country is now facing radiation scare with a hydrogen explosion occurring today at the quake-hit Fukushima nuclear plant's troubled second reactor. The first reactor of the plant exploded on the next day of tsunami.

The radiation at the plant's premises rose over benchmark limit of 500 micro sievert per hour at two locations. Over 1.80 lakh people have been evacuated from a 20 km radius of the plant, joining over 3.5 lakh who have already moved out.