New Delhi: Indicating that some recovery is under way, the country’s largest commercial vehicles maker, Tata Motors, is hiring over 1,650 temporary workers for its Jamshedpur plant, after temporarily stopping operations several times at the unit over the past few months.

The Jamshedpur plant, where the company mainly makes heavy duty commercial vehicles, had last year disengaged over 700 temporary workers as production fell due to a severe sales slump.

“From the beginning of February we have hired over 1,650 temporary workers for our Jamshedpur plant,” a company spokesperson said.

Asked if production has increased at the plant, he said, “The plant is also functioning normally.”

The hiring of temporary workers comes on the heels of Tata Motors recording healthy commercial vehicles sales in January at 17,373 units, its highest in three months. This was, however, 43% down compared to the same month last year, which was at 30,530 units.

The company’s Jamshedpur plant had undergone three temporary block closures on 6-8 November, 25-29 November and 8-13 December last year.

Last October, after the disengagement of 700 temporary workers, their number had come down to 1,200 at the plant.