Toyota Kirloskar commences third shift at Karnataka-based plant to enhance production, cut waiting period

Toyota Kirloskar Motor has initiated a third shift at its Karnataka-based plant to enhance production capacity by around 30 per cent, as it looks to cut down waiting periods on some of its popular models like Innova Crysta and Fortuner.

The automaker has commenced a third shift from the first week of May in its Plant 1 in Bidadi on the outskirts of Bengaluru to ramp up the manufacturing capacity.

The company has invested over Rs 90 crore to upgrade the existing infrastructure at the facility and added around 1,500 workforce for the third shift at the plant.

"We have commenced a third shift at the plant which produces models like Innova Crysta, Innova Hycross and Fortuner. These products have been quite successful and there is quite a long waiting period. We are trying to minimise the impact for the customers," TKM Senior Vice President and Chief Communication Officer Sudeep S Dalvi told PTI in an interaction.

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He noted that the company took a shutdown of around a week at the plant to modify certain areas to enable the third shift.

"We have invested more than Rs 900 million in the plant capacity expansion," Dalvi stated.

The third shift would allow the plant to produce 30 per cent more, as compared to what it is producing right now, he added.

TKM is looking to produce over 30,000 units a year from the plant which currently rolls out close to 1 lakh units per annum.

The automaker has two facilities within the Bidadi compound which rolls out different sets of products.

TKM's Plant 1 commenced production in December 1999 and currently rolls out Innova Hycross, Innova Crysta, Fortuner and Legender.

Products like Camry Hybrid and Hilux are also assembled at the Bidadi facility.

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TKM currently has a total production capacity of 3.10 lakh units per annum at the Bidadi plant.

Dalvi noted that operations at its second plant, which rolls out products like Hyryder and Grand Vitara, are not part of the current capacity enhancement initiative.

In April, TKM decided to temporarily halt bookings of top trims of its multi purpose vehicle Innova Hycross from April 8, owing to ongoing supply challenges.

Last year it had also stopped taking orders for the diesel variant of Innova Crysta due to high demand and increased waiting period.