SINGUR: Work at the Tata Motors small-car project here was affected on Monday with majority of contract workers staying away, as a siege by Trinamool Congress cadres continued for the second day.
"Attendance of the company officials was normal. But that of the contractual workers was less than normal," a Tata Motors spokesman said.
Already facing delay, the company has been racing against time to meet the October-December quarter-deadline for roll out of Nano. The company is also facing cost overruns.
Last week, Tata Sons chairman Ratan Tata threatened to take the project elsewhere despite investing Rs 1,500 crore in Singur if violence and work disruptions continued.
Supporters of Trinamool Congress and other allies started gathering at the dharna site at the main gate since morning amidst massive police arrangement in and around the area.
The agitation, however, remained peaceful and no one was allowed by the Trinamool leadership to go near the Tata Motors plant.
The busy Durgapur expressway continued to be closed and traffic was diverted through the Delhi road and GT road, IGP (law and order) Raj Kanojia said in Kolkata.
Kanojia said the closure of the expressway led to a huge traffic snarl. The agitating workers of Trinamool Congress and its other allies had spent the night on the expressway.
Mamata Banerjee was seen sitting in the dais and asking her party supporters not to damage the factory wall or premises.
"We should agitate peacefully and no harm should be done to the Tata Motors small car factory," she told her supporters as she did on Sunday too.
Along with Banerjee, her allies the Socialist Unity Centre of India and Pragotisheel Indira Cogress, formed recently by Somen Mitra, former president of the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee, were seen protesting in front of the Tata Motors factory.
On Sunday, Banerjee had suggested that the vendor park of the Tata Motors could be shifted to a nearby low-lying area.
