India's infamous monsoon brought the Chennai automobile cluster to a standstill for the second time in two weeks as rain pounded the city and suburban areas from Tuesday morning.
According to ET Auto, almost all factories, located on the fringes of Chennai either suspended production from Tuesday afternoon or didn't start work due to poor attendance.
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The north east monsoon rain has swept across Tamil Nadu state with Chennai receiving 100-year record rainfall in November.
Hyundai, Ford, Nissan-Renault and Daimler stopped work either before or after their second shifts (which usually start around 3PM) on Tuesday and axed their first shifts on Wednesday.
A Ford spokesperson said that their plant in Maraimalai Nagar on GST Road was shut after noon.
BMW, which has an assembly plant inside Mahindra City on the southern fringes of Chennai also suspended production. "Heavy rainfall has severely affected employee transportation in Chennai. BMW Plant Chennai will not be able to undertake any production activities today (Tuesday). Our aim is to ensure utmost safety for our employees," a BMW statement said.
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By GlobalData"Only if the weather conditions return to normal and employees are able to travel, then BMW Plant Chennai will resume production tomorrow (Wednesday)," the statement said.
Suppliers also suspended production as workers could not reach factories. Wheels India's plant in Padi in the western suburbs of Chennai announced it was stopping production from Tuesday's night shift. "There is no water logging inside the plant as such but we decided to stop work Tuesday night as a safety precaution," an official said.
First shift work at Apollo Tyres unit in Oragadam was not affected but second shift work used a skeleton crew, a spokesman said.
Sources in the city told just-auto early Wednesday that weather conditions were still bad.
