Maruti's Manesar plant: 16 cars made on second day

Gurgaon, Aug 22 (IANS) The first lot of 16 cars was manufactured on the second day of the reopening of Maruti's plant at Manesar in Haryana Wednesday as more workers joined work, a senior company official said.

Apart from the 16 cars, 28 were almost fully assembled, the official said.

Ninety-six casual workers were made permanent employees Wednesday while 240 permanent and 146 casual workers were at work, he added.

Trade unions are demanding that 546 permanent and 1,869 contract workers earlier sacked by the company be reinstated.

Chief Operating Officer (Production) M.M. Singh is overseeing production.

A company spokesperson said that Maruti Suzuki's chairman and CEO Osamu Suzuki will Thursday meet the managers and supervisors who were injured during the July 18 violence.

The plant was shut down July 18 following violence between workers and company officials. The incident claimed the life of a senior official and led to injuries to 96 supervisors and managers as a section of workers allegedly also torched the factory.

The company claims the arson during the July 18 violence caused a loss of nearly Rs.10 crore. Production losses ran into crores of rupees as the plant was manufacturing nearly 1,700 vehicles per day.