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Maruti Suzuki India on Tuesday reopened its Manesar plant amid heavy security, a month after a lockout was declared due to the violence in which one senior company official was killed and 100 others injured. The Haryana government has deployed around 500 armed policemen in the area to ensure safety, and the company had set up its own force of 100 guards in addition to existing security. The 550,000 vehicles-a-year factory in Manesar, where the unit of Japan 's Suzuki Motor Corp makes its best-selling Swift hatchback, has been idle since the July 18 clash between workers and management. The company will initially make just 150 cars a day in the factory, which on an average, used to make 1700 cars a day till the riots stopped production. "About 300 workers will start work on Tuesday and when we start, we would be producing about 150 cars per day," Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) Chairman R C Bhargava said According to sources, besides, 500 contract workers have been identified for their alleged involvement in violence and would not be taken back during new hiring to start on September 2. The company has seen a revenue loss of about 256 million dollars because of the shutdown, while analysts estimate it has been losing about 15 million dollars a day. According to analysts, a one-month shutdown had cut parent Suzuki's operating profit by about 6 billion yen, equal to 5 percent of the Japanese car maker's forecast for the year.

Maruti reopens Manesar plant amid security