Ahmedabad, 15 June, 2014

In recent months, Tata Motors car manufacturing plant at Sanand near Ahmedabad was functional for only few days per week. In a latest development the company has decided to shut down the plant for “routine maintenance” for little more than a month period.

The Rs 2,000-crore plant was manufacturing India’s cheapest car, Tata Nano. It was operating at just 5% of its annual capacity.

The company describes a six weeks halt as a routine shutdown for maintenance which is aimed at re-tooling for upgradation of a new variant.

The plant has an annual capacity of 2.5 lakh cars. It is filled with unsold Nano cars. The plant is likely to be used for manufacturing of a new variant Kite.

The all new car, codenamed Kite, is planned to be launched in late 2015 and would be rolled out from Tata Motors’ Sanand plant in Gujarat.

As per the data available from company, the plant produced and sold 1,001 Nanos in May this year were produced. In April, 1,032 cars were produced and 1,027 sold in the country.