"The VRS will continue at our Uttarpara plant," Hindustan Motors executive vice-president R Santhanam told presspersons here while announcing the company's rights issue.

He parried a pointed question as to how many employees at the unit have so far opted for the VRS, but said the company had not set any target for the number of employees it wanted to bring under the scheme.

Santhanam said most car production units in the country produced 63 cars per employee per year against the world average of 108. HM's rural transport vehicle unit at Pithampur, Madhya Pradesh, has the capacity to produce 40, while its Lancer car unit at Tiruvallur, Tamil Nadu, will produce 33.

Production at HM's Uttarpara unit, however, was way behind with only about three cars produced per employee per year, he said, and hinted thatefforts would be made to bring about a parity in its production with other units.

Sanathanam, however, did not say whether this would be brought about by decreasing workforce.