According to a spokesman, the step has been taken "with a view to ensure savings on overheads during the lean monsoon season ahead".

Telco, which had been producing 140 vehicles per day on an average even a few days back, now "wants to maintain its current production level of 100 vehicles a day till the market shows an improvement", the spokesman said.

"The one-shift (7 am - 4 pm) daily schedule is a synchronisation of effort and an effort to tighten belts on the part of company. We want to produce as much as the market demands and don't want to carry stocks," he added. Though Tata Engineering's production line here has been cut to a single-shift schedule, its foundry unit will continue to run on a three-shift basis, the source said.

Asked whether the cut in shifts would have any impact of workers, Telco Workers' Union (TWU) assistant general secretary Yugal Kishore said, "As long as it does not result in reduction of monetary benefits to our workers, the union is not bothered as to how the management is going to reschedule the workforce."

The TWU official confirmed that barring 1996 and 1997, when the company produced around 200-250 vehicles a day here throughout the year, the season between April-July, which coincides with the monsoons, has always seen low market demand.

Telco, which is offering an employee separation scheme (ESS) for Class IV workers, has accepted the applications of 1,500 workers of its 11,000 workforce belonging to this category. The last date for this is June 30, 2000.