More than seven weeks after Maruti Suzuki suspended its operations in Haryana due to COVID-19-induced lockdown, the country’s biggest car manufacturer will resume production at its Manesar plant on Tuesday.
More than 1,300 industrial units have also been granted permission to resume operations in Gurugram with over 1 lakh workers, besides 96 construction activities employing 20,000 labourers. The Maruti’s Manesar plant has been allowed to work with over 4,000 workers.
Maruti Suzuki Workers’ Union joint-secretary Vikas Kumar said though the supervisors and other staff had been going to work since the permission was granted last month, around a hundred workers from different departments with one of the three plants are expected to join work on Tuesday.
Mr. Kumar said though it would be difficult to resume production on the first day, but around a dozen cars left mid-way on the assembly line could be manufactured. “As of now, the management has called the workers from the orange and green zones only. Since it would be difficult for the workers to come from far-flung areas, the staff from Gurugram district alone would come tomorrow [Tuesday],” said Mr. Kumar.
He said the company had decided to double the lunch timings to three hours and have four tea-breaks instead of the two earlier to maintain social distancing, besides fewer workers would be allowed in the buses and rest areas.
Gurugram plant
The company has also received permission to resume operations at its Gurugram plant with more than 10,000 workers.
Meanwhile, the district public relations department, in a press release, claimed that 1,330 industrial units, manufacturing both essential and non-essential items, were given conditional permission to resume operations with the total strength of 1,06,751 workers.
Besides, 20,228 workers would be benefited by permission to 96 construction activities. Seven brick kilns employing 568 workers have also been granted permission to resume their activities.
