Maruti Suzuki to shut down Haryana plants to make oxygen available

Maruti Suzuki on Wednesday has announced that it will stop producing cars in the company's plants in Haryana between 1st and 9th May 2021 to make Oxygen available for the healthcare and medical sector.

As the car manufacturer claims, Maruti Suzuki uses a small amount of oxygen in its factories while relatively much larger quantities are used by the manufacturers of components.

As the car manufacturer says, currently, all the available oxygen should be used to save lives. Hence, the auto company has decided to advance its annual maintenance shutdown from June 2021 to early May. Production in all the factories will close for maintenance during this period, informed the country's largest automaker.

Suzuki Motor Gujarat too has taken the same decision for its factory.

Meanwhile, Hyundai too has announced that it will help the hospitals setting up oxygen plants. The South Korean automaker has announced that it will help the cause with a ₹20-crore Covid-19 relief package through its philanthropic arm Hyundai Motor India Foundation (HMIF). This amount will be used to improve medical infrastructure across some of the most affected states such as Maharashtra, Delhi, Haryana, Telangana and Tamil Nadu.

India has been facing a severe crisis due to the second wave of the Coronavirus pandemic. There has been an acute oxygen shortage at the medical facilities despite the increasing demand from thew Covid patients. Several industrial sectors that use oxygen for their operations have been directed to divert the life-saving gas to the medical sectors.

In the wake of the acute shortage of life-saving gas, the Indian government has completely banned the use of liquid oxygen for industrial purposes. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in a communication to all the states and the Union Territories has made it clear that no exception is allowed to any industry with regard to the use of liquid oxygen. The government has decided to use liquid oxygen, including the existing stock, for medical purposes only.

India's new Covid-19 deaths have hit an overwhelming peak with 3,293 people passing away in the last 24 hours. Also, this is the seventh straight day that 3 lakh cases have been registered in India, which is the second worst-hit country after the US.

New Covid cases have increased by more than 3.6 lakh, which is a global high, pushing the total positive Covid cases to more than 1.79 crores in the country. The second wave of the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic in the country has left India grappling for oxygen and medicines.