Renault-Nissan to scale down production at Chennai plant

As part of its plans to optimise production, Renault Nissan Automotive India Pvt Ltd (RNAIPL), a Franco-Japanese auto alliance, would suspend the third shift operations at its Chennai factory, the company said today.

The employees at the factory have been informed that the plant would operate in two shifts instead of three from second week of December, a company statement here said.

Stating that the employees, both permanent and those who are on-roll will keep the jobs, the company said, the third shift was introduced to meet the high demand for Renault Kwid and Datsun redi-GO models.

"Demand for the cars remain strong but waiting times have been successfully brought down. In addition, plant operations have been optimised to maximise the production in two shifts, it said.

"At RNAIPL, we are proud to play our part in Make in India. In making this necessary change we are protecting the jobs of permanent, on-roll employees who will be reassigned to other duties within the plant," RNAIPL, Managing Director, Colin MacDonald said.

"There is a bright future ahead as we develop RNAIPL into even more significant passenger car manufacturing hub for Africa, Middle East and India region," he said.

Renault Nissan Automotive India Pvt Ltd have invested around Rs 5,000 crore at the facility in 2008.

The factory has an annual capacity of 4.80 lakh units.

The alliance operations support 40,000 jobs directly and indirectly,it said.