India Yamaha Motor shuts shop in wake of coronavirus

Two-wheeler major India Yamaha motor, a subsidiary of Japan-headquartered Yamaha, on Monday said it was suspending operations at its facilities in the country in view of coronavirus outbreak. The company said it has taken preventive counter- measure of suspending its manufacturing operations at its facilities in Chennai, Surajpur (Uttar Pradesh) and Faridabad (Haryana) till March 31, 2020.

The decision was taken following the COVID-19 pandemic and also the safety, health and hygiene of its employees, customers and business partners.

"The operations at the Surajpur and Faridabad plants have been suspended with immediate effect while Chennai plant will be suspended from March 24," the company said.

The employees at the headquarters and area offices have been provided with the option of work from home till March 31, it said.

"Yamaha is fully committed to the health protocols in the wake of the COVID-19 threat and as a responsible corporate, it has been taking all precautionary measures such as increased frequency of sanitisation and creating awareness among employees in the current scenario," it said.

"We will completely abide the government order during the period and will wait for further notifications from the respective state governments to resume plant operations", the statement added.

Tamil Nadu has reported nine positive cases in the state so far with one person being discharged from government hospital after he recovered from COVID-19.

The state government on Monday announced that CrPC section 144 would be invoked for implementation from 6pm on March 24 as a measure to control the spread of virus.

Essential and emergency services would operate while public and private transport services would not function.