Monday, August 1 2005 14:29 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: As it resumed normal operations after the end of a month-long bitter labour dispute, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) today (Aug 1, 2005) said it would take about 2-3 days to touch peak production levels.

"Things have to be synchronised, including raw material purchases," a senior HMSI official told sources from the company's plant at Manesar.

The company, market leader in the scooter segment, has peak production levels of about 2,000 units a day against which it is currently managing to roll out only about 800-900 units.

It also manufactures a 150-cc bike 'Unicorn', its lone offering in the motorcycle segment.

Bike production had to be suspended after the labour agitation took an ugly turn and manufacturing was severely squeezed.

"We hope to re-start production of bikes by tomorrow (Aug 2, 2005)," the official said.

Fall in production had seen the company facing enormous difficulty in meeting dealer demands and saw it suffering losses of about 150 crore.

After striking peace with the management over the weekend, the workers have started reporting for duty from today.

The company operates in three shifts beginning 0630 hrs, the first two of which are eight-and-a-half hours long while the last one is a seven-hour shift.

The official said operations were 'absolutely normal' in the first shift.

"Around 800 people have resumed work in the first shift and we expect a similar number to report for duty in the second," he said, pointing out that most of the production work is carried out in these two shifts.