Maruti Suzuki has shifted the entire assembly of the new Swift model to its Gurgaon plant, after production at the Manesar plant came to almost a halt on the back of a labour strike.
The Swift, its third most selling model, saw close to 50,000 order bookings before its launch last month and currently has a waiting period of around four months.
“We are doing the press and welding processes of the Swift to the second line at Manesar, which started a fortnight back. This is because this line is highly automated and does not require much manpower. Since the last three days, the assembly has been shifted to Gurgaon,” a company official said.
A labour strike at Manesar in June this year and a capacity crunch had already led the company to shift the Swift Dzire production to its Gurgaon plant. But, with the situation again flaring up from last week, the company has chosen to move its other high volume model as well.
The company's original plan had been to take up the Swift production to 18,000 units a month from 12,000 units by September and increase even further with the new line at Manesar.