Mahindra to halt production amid Covid surge, prepones 'scheduled maintenance'

Indian vehicle manufacturer Mahindra and Mahindra has announced that it has decided to prepone the scheduled maintenance of its facilities from June to this month. The decision has been taken due to the evolving Covid situation in the country.

Mahindra and Mahindra issued a statement today regarding the decision in a BSE filing. It also said, "The Company has scaled up its efforts to ensure health and safety of its employees, associates and supporting ecosystem."

The scheduled maintenance will only span four working days, which means vehicle production during this period will remain suspended. Mahindra has confirmed that the scheduled maintenance will be carried out at each of its automotive divisions, ranging between passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles and others. However, the entire exercise will not be over in four days. The company said it will carry out scheduled maintenance at these manufacturing plants one at a time.

Mahindra automotive division has manufacturing units at Chakan, Nashik, Kandivali, Zaheerabad and Haridwar.

The statement issued by Mahindra also read, "The Company continues to work closely with its Dealers and Suppliers to minimise the impact of disruption in operations due to localised lockdown restrictions in various parts of the country."

Mahindra is one of the few carmakers in India which has been quite actively helping out the society during the ongoing crisis. Since last year, Mahindra has been providing helps with face-shields, ventilators. Recently, the carmaker has also undertaken an initiative called 'Oxygen on Wheels'. The group's chairman Anand Mahindra has deployed several Bolero pickup trucks to deliver oxygen cylinders to different parts of Maharashtra when the states are facing a crunch.

Other carmakers like MG Motor, Toyota Kirloskar Motor, two-wheeler manufacturers like Hero MotoCorp and Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) have also announced similar shutdowns recently. While such halts in production are mostly the result of strict lockdown-like restrictions imposed across several states in the country, they also are indications that demands have dipped due to the ongoing crisi