Tata Motors plant to remain shut for six days

Jamshedpur, Nov 23 (UNI) The actual closure of production in the Jamshedpur Commercial Vehicle Plant of Tata Motors due to heavy demand slump caused by the ongoing global financial meltdown and loan crisis will actually last for six days despite official announcement of only five days block closure.

Sources at the Tata Motors here said the second block closure, begining November 25, would officially end after five days on November 29, but as the next day is a Sunday, which happens to be a general holiday of the plant, there will not be any production on the sixth consecutive day (November 30) as well. Consequently, the plant will actually be functional only from December 1.

This is the fourth such closure of the plant in almost a decade and second in just one month as the plant had been closed recently between November 5-9 with three days announced block closure, one adjusted leave and a general holiday.

Tata Motors spokesperson Captain P J Singh, in a statement issued here yesterday, said the company's Commercial Vehicle Plant at Jamshedpur would take block closure from November 25-29.

The production has dropped from almost 500 units per day in March to around 150 recently.

The auto giant has already disengaged almost all of its around 3,000 non-permanent workers due to production slump. It gave no work notice to half of them on October 20, 23 and November 3. Half of such workers were ousted during the general monsoon slump and were not taken back.

Recently the plant had brought down the number of production shifts to one from normal days three. Due to the Tata Motors demand downturn hundres of ancillaries in neighbouring Adityapur Industrial area are also facing crisis with mote than fifty of them already shut.

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