Honda to stop producing cars in India for 12 days amid Covid scare

Honda Cars India on Thursday has announced that it is advancing maintenance shutdown at its Rajasthan-based manufacturing plant by around ten days in the wake of the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic. The Japanese automaker has decided to shut production at its Tapukara-based facility for 12 days starting from May 7 in an attempt to curb the spread of coronavirus infections.

The production at the manufacturing facility will be halted from May 7 till May 18, as Honda has informed. The automaker will resume manufacturing operations from May 19.

The annual maintenance block closure was originally scheduled for the middle of May 2021.

HCIL's Tapukara plant has an installed production capacity of 1.8 lakh units per annum. The company's employees working in corporate and zonal offices for all functions have been asked to work from home. Only some associates involved in running essential services that require physical presence for a few critical activities are attending office, claimed Honda.

Honda is not the first automaker to take such measures amid the growing positive cases of Covid-19. Earlier this week, Mahindra & Mahindra too announced advancing the annual maintenance plant shutdown to May.

Other auto manufacturers like Maruti Suzuki, Hero MotoCorp, MG Motor India, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI), and Suzuki Motorcycle India too have already announced a temporary suspension of manufacturing operations in the wake of the rise in Covid-19 cases.