Although company officials were not available for comment, it is believed that this is the beginning of the company’s attempts to shut down the plant.
In fact, Managing director Rajiv Bajaj had thrown sufficient hints about the closure of Akurdi plant during an Annual General Body Meeting held at Pune last month. He had attributed the move to shut down Akurdi plant, to marked decrease in production.  “We might shut down Akurdi plant. This plant made 350,000 vehicles last year and this year it has come down to 50,000, with 2,200 workers. The Pantnagar plant is doing one million vehicles with 500 people. Shutting down plants is not easy in this country. Your company has to be a sick unit to be shut down,” Mr Bajaj had told shareholders during that AGM.
Employee strength
Bajaj Auto has been reducing the number of its employees at Akurdi through a series of voluntary retirement schemes since the last eight years or so. 
The work force at Akurdi has come down from 4,500 to around 2,000 in the last few years.  Currently, motorcycles are manufactured at Valuj near Aurangabad, Chakan near Pune and Pant Nagar in Uttarakhand, while Krystal — the only scooter under its belt now — is made at Akurdi. The company’s three wheeler production is concentrated at Waluj with some volumes coming from Pant Nagar as well.  However, Bajaj’s corporate office will continue to remain on the 200 acre premises at Akurdi. It will also house an R&D centre and an export, purchase and financing office. An R&D and engineering centre will come up on 100 acres.
Bajaj Auto has invested about Rs 200 crore on R&D in the past two years and it will invest another 100 crore rupees on a learning centre on 21 acres of land.
The company makes small scooters and motorcycles at its Pantnagar plant. Higher end motorcycles like the Pulsar 150, 180, 200 and 220cc will be made at its plant at Chakan near Pune.