As you may have seen in the news, India is currently battling the world’s biggest surge in COVID-19 cases—a week ago, it was logging over 300,000 new cases in a day. Hospitals are already overwhelmed, and there is now a reported oxygen shortage in the country.
To aid the country in its fight against the pandemic, Maruti Suzuki has announced that it will be advancing its biannual maintenance shutdown in its Haryana factories. This temporary shutdowns were planned to happen in June, but they will now take effect from May 1 to 9, 2021, in order to make more oxygen available for medical needs.
Maruti Suzuki’s statement reads: “As part of the car manufacturing process, Maruti Suzuki uses a small amount of oxygen in its factories while relatively much larger quantities are used by the manufacturers of components. In the current situation, we believe that all available oxygen should be used to save lives.”
During this period, production in all affected factories will be stopped. In addition, Maruti Suzuki has also shared that Suzuki Motor Gujarat will be doing the same for its facilities.