Protests against a factory being built in eastern India to make the world's cheapest car forced a halt to work for a second day Saturday as vehicle giant Tata Motors mulled the plant's future.
"There has been no improvement in the ground situation so far, hence the conditions are still not conducive for resuming work today," Tata Motors said in a statement.
"We continue to assess the situation closely" at the plant in Singur in the Marxist-ruled West Bengal state, said the company making the 2,500-dollar compact car, known as the "Nano" and billed as the world's cheapest.
The halt to work came a week after Ratan Tata, chairman of the Tata conglomerate, warned he would move the plant from the state if the protests kept up at Singur, on the outskirts of state capital Kolkata.
Tata Motors was expected to make a decision soon on the fate of the plant into which the company has already invested 350 million dollars.
At the company's general meeting in Kolkata earlier this month, Ratan Tata said, "We would move, whatever the cost, to protect our people.”