The transportation industry seems to be coming back on track post the relaxations being implemented during the nationwide lockdown. The two leading commercial vehicle OEMs, Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland, announced resumption of operations at their manufacturing facilities in India.
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Tata Motors kickstarted its operations at its plants located in Pantnagar, where manufacturing of the company’s light, medium and heavy commercial vehicles takes place, and Sanand, where small passenger vehicles and electric vehicles are manufactured.
As per Tata Motors, other plants of the company in Lucknow, Dharwad, Jamshedpur and Pune will resume operations soon as well, and will follow all the health and safety protocols in place.
In a statement, Guenter Butschek, Managing Director, Tata Motors, said, “We will scale operations in a graded manner as the entire enabling ecosystem of suppliers, vendors, dealers and customers comes up to speed. We are cautiously optimistic and staying agile to cater to an evolving demand.”
While Tata Motors has only two plants going back to work, Ashok Leyland has announced resumption of operations in all of its facilities across India. As per Vipin Sondhi, Managing Director, Ashok Leyland, “We will gradually ramp up production across facilities after taking into consideration the Work in Progress (WIP) that was on hold at the time of announcement of lock-down, the supply chain readiness after opening and most importantly the preparedness of the ancillary units to supply us critical components, for sustained production of vehicles.”
According to the statement released by Tata Motors, more than 400 sales outlets and 885 workshops, designated for commercial vehicle customers, have resumed operation. They will be working under a revised set of standard operating procedure, keeping social distancing and health protocols in order while customer interaction takes place.
Other leading commercial vehicles makers like VECV, Daimler and Mahindra have already resumed operations last week.