A fire, which broke out in the early hours of Thursday, May 18, at Japanese carmaker, Honda Cars India’s (HCIL’s) Greater Noida Unit, saw production shifts called off for a couple of days.

As reported to PTI in a statement by HCIL, the mishap, which did not lead to any casualties, occurred in the backup generator unit of the plant and was brought under control within a couple of hours of the incident.

The statement added, “In view of the temporary disruption of the supply of power and water to the plant, operations at the unit had to be suspended on May 18.” It added, “We have already adjusted the production schedule for the next few days to recover the loss in production within this month,” the statement said.

While production was immediately called off on May 18, with the line associates working in the morning shift having been sent back, office work resumed the next day, with teams swiftly working to resolve the situation over the weekly off on the weekend (May 20 and 21), so as to resume production on Monday today.

The plant, which has an installed annual capacity of 120,000 units, is currently operating on a single-shift basis, utilising 50 percent of the total capacity. HCIL reported domestic sales of 14,480 units (+38.1%) in April this year, owing to the strong demand of the newly launched WR-V crossover and the facelift version of the City sedan.