Maruti rolls out 700 Swift cars from Manesar, Gurgaon

"Maruti Suzuki today produced 700 Swift cars from Manesar and Gurgaon plants, combined," Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) said in a statement.

At this level of daily production, the company can now produce over 17,500 units of Swifts in a month, it added.

"Focussed efforts to augment manpower strength at Manesar plants and starting  production of Swift model at Gurgaon plant also have helped the company to reach this level of monthly production for the model," it said.

In the last few days, MSI has brought in over 800 experienced and ITI trained people to scale up production at the two Manesar plants besides moving in 90 engineers from the Gurgaon plant to Manesar.

At present, over 1,300 people are working in Manesar plants. The company is now understood to be planning a new variant of its entry level sedan DZiRE, based on the platform of the new Swift, that will be rolled out from the unit.

In a clear sign that the management is looking ahead irrespective of the existing workers resuming their duties or not, MSI has started trial production of the new DZiRE that will qualify for excise duty benefit given on small cars in India.

Earlier, it had said that it would soon restart manufacturing its sedan SX4 and compact car A-Star at the Manesar unit.

On an average, the firm produces about 1,200 units of Swift, A-Star and SX4 every day from the Manesar facility. The plant has a total of about 2,500 workers, of which 950 are regular employees.

The MSI management and workers have been locked in a stand-off since August 29, when the management prevented workers from entering the factory premises unless they signed a 'good conduct' bond. The management had alleged sabotage and deliberate compromise on the quality of cars being produced.

Workers at the plant, however, said the management took these steps in "revenge" for their 13-day strike in June, demanding the recognition of a new union -- the Maruti Suzuki Employees Union -- at the unit.