Japanese car maker Toyota suspends India operations

Japanese car maker Toyota has reportedly suspended production at its main production base near Bengaluru, the capital of Karnataka state in southern India.

According to a senior official of the Toyota Kirloskar Motor, a subsidiary of the world's biggest car maker Toyota Motor Corporation, the shutdown of its two car plants at the main base in Bidadi was due to a "grave threat to the safety of its management" in a verbal war with more than 4,500 workers over the hike of their wages.

"We were left with no other option but to declare a lockout on Sunday after some workers disrupted production lines and started abusing our line supervisors. Tempers were fraying, and, as a measure of abundant precaution, we declared lockout," Shekar Vishwanathan, the vice chairman of Toyota Kirloskar Motor, was quoted as saying.

He said the shutdown resulted in a loss of output of over 2,000 cars in the last 25 days.

The two plants produce over 300,000 cars annually for the Indian market.