Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL) on Wednesday said it has decided to advance its maintenance shutdown, originally scheduled for June, to May 1 to 9, in order to divert oxygen for saving lives.

"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 components manufacturers. In the current situation, we believe that all available oxygen should be used to save lives," the company said in a statement.

Production in all factories will close for maintenance during this period. The company has been informed that Suzuki Motor Gujarat has taken the same decision for its factory.

In an interaction with mediapersons on Tuesday, post the announcement of fourth quarter results, RC Bhargava, Chairman, MSIL, had said that the company does not use oxygen as such at its plants, but the vendors use it at their factories.

However, he did not indicate advancing the annual shutdown of the plants for maintenance.

"We think that going forward we have to keep watching the situation. And unless circumstances warrant, some action being taken by us to continue as we are. As far as the other questions are concerned, my vehicle factories do not use liquid oxygen...we use gaseous oxygen to a limited extent in our company. But, our vendors use liquid oxygen also," he had said.

"Now, we have to watch this situation because there are restrictions on any kind of oxygen use, and what extent this is going to affect us. We are keeping a very close watch on this and as the situation evolves, we will have to take the appropriate decisions," Bhargava had added.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW