NEW DELHI: Production is likely to be impacted temporarily at Bajaj Auto and Skoda Auto Volkswagen India’s factories in Aurangabad, with the district administration announcing a weeklong lockdown from July 10 to check the spread of Covid-19 in the region.
The decision to re-impose the lockdown in the Central Maharashtra district was taken on Monday after a meeting between government authorities and public representatives.
Bajaj Auto manufactures vehicles for exports at a facility in the district’s Waluj industrial area. A senior executive at the Pune-based company said the lost production would be recovered in the second half of July and the beginning of next month. Workers would forego half of their wages for the lockdown period, he said.
At present, 1,700-1,800 employees work at the Waluj factory where the company is operating at half the capacity in two shifts. It restarted operations at the plant on April 23.
The lockdown was announced even as the company management and workers’ unions were unable to reach an agreement on whether or not to suspend operations at the plant, where many workers had tested positive for the infection.
A workers’ union representative, Thengade Bajirao, on Sunday put the number of positive cases among workers at the factory at 250. Six workers have lost their life to Covid-19, while around 800 people are quarantined till the end of June.
Skoda Auto Volkswagen India has a manufacturing facility at Shendra in Aurangabad. The plant produces premium and luxury models of the VW Group brands of Skoda, Volkswagen and Audi.
Meanwhile, Toyota Kirloskar Motor on Monday halted operations for a day at its facility at Bidadi in Karnataka after an employee succumbed to the infection on Sunday. Production will resume Tuesday.
Toyota said the deceased employee had last attended work at the factory on June 23 and hence as of now there had been no clear evidence of internal transmission within the company from this case or the previously reported eight Covid-19 positive cases at the plant.
However, in line with government-outlined guidelines, the company has quarantined those employees who are suspected to have had primary or secondary contact with the deceased until June 23, it said in a statement.
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