Fire broke out at Fiat India's Ranjangaon plant this week, JV partner Tata Motors assures production not hampered

A fire broke out earlier this week at Fiat India Automobile Company's Ranjangaon plant on the outskirts of Pune, where the popular compact SUV Nexon is made.

The paint shop at the Tata-Fiat JV facility caught fire, which was quickly doused with close to half a dozen fire engines arriving at the site to contain the damage.

Sources say the incident has impacted the production of vehicles for the last few days, which may lead to an output loss of about 10% for the month. Tata Motors however in a reply to Autocar Professional's query, stated that the impact on production is the bare minimum and will not hamper the supply of vehicles in the market. 

A Tata Motors' spokesperson in an official response confirmed that there was an incident at the Ranjangaon facility recently which was brought under control "very quickly". 

The incident happened as the inventory of the new Nexon MCE was just getting replenished at the dealerships ahead of the high footfall festive season. People in the know say the company is prioritising Nexon output over Harrier and Safari at its paint shop in the Pimpri plant.

Tata Motors' own factory in Pimpri Chinchwad has supported the Ranjangaon factory over the last few years to meet high demand and it came to immediate rescue this week too.  

"Thanks to our flexible manufacturing techniques and our agile working culture, we have managed to swiftly address the situation by ramping up the paint shop in our other facility, causing no major disruption whatsoever. We don't see any major impact on our supplies. The new Nexon has been received very well and we are well prepared to meet the demand," assured the spokesperson.