After being shut down for more than a month, India’s major carmaker Maruti Suzuki India is all set to begin its operations at company’s Manesar plant from next week.
Maruti said it would restart the production at Manesar plant from May 12, i.e. Wednesday.
With an aim to contain spread of COVID-19, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi initially announced a complete 21-day nationwide lockdown on March 23, which was later extended till May 3. During this period, government had closed all businesses except the ones that provide essential services and goods to the masses.
Now the lockdown has entered in the third stage by another two weeks till May 17. But this time the government has given relaxation to a number of businesses to begin their operations, with an aim to curb the economic slowdown. Automobile industry, being the part of the manufacturing sector, has also received government’s approval to restart its business.
“All activities would be carried out strictly in accordance with government regulations and guidelines and observing the company’s own concern for the highest standards of safety,” the company said in a stock exchange notification.
Apart from the plant, the company has also reopened 600 of its 3,086 dealerships in the past few days. The reopening comes a week after Maruti Suzuki on last Friday reported zero sales in the month of April.
Other than Maruti Suzuki, it’s peers including Hero MotoCorp, Mercedes Benz India, Eicher Motors, TVS Motor, and Isuzu Motors India have also received clearance from the state governments for resuming their operations.
Meanwhile, India jumped two spots up among the COVID-19 affected countries with its total number of coronavirus cases hitting 52,952 count.
Country’s total death count has crossed 1,780 mark.