Last week’s act of rioting and arson by plant workers at Maruti Suzuki’s Manesar plant in Haryana, which claimed the life of an HR official and left scores of other employees injured, has taken its toll on the production of the cars.

The incident at the plant led to the company announcing a lockout at the plant, which has affected the production of the company’s top selling models in India, Swift and Dzire.

Although there was some inventory left after the plant stopped production, Maruti has run out of stock of the two models.

However, the leading automaker has not stopped taking bookings for the models, even though their waiting period may have increased.

“Our booking is going on and we will not stop it. We have informed the dealers and customers about the situation. We tell the customers that this is the current situation (about the production at Manesar) and if even after that, they want to book the car, then it shows the strength of the two brands,” reports said citing Mayank Pareek, Chief Operating Officer (Marketing and Sales) at Maruti Suzuki India.

He said at present Swift has a booking order of 55,000 units, while DZire has 65,000 bookings. Out of these, 80% cent are for the diesel variants. During the April-June quarter this year, Maruti had sold over 56,000 units of Swift, while DZire had recorded sales of about 47,000 units.

Pareek also ruled out shifting production of Swift and DZire to Gurgaon plant.

Asked when the production is likely to start at Manesar, Pareek said, “We are optimistic about the situation. Our people are working very hard to restore normalcy,” reports said.

Meanwhile, Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has strongly supported Maruti Suzuki in its fight against its workers.

“Maruti and Haryana government are one in approach and there is no difference of opinion. We understand their problems, they understand our concerns. Maruti is here to stay. They have best of the policies,” reports said quoting Hooda.