Toyota suspends production at Karnataka”s Bidadi plant till July 22

Team Udayavani, Jul 14, 2020, 5:50 PM IST

New Delhi: Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) on Tuesday said it has decided to suspend production at its Bidadi plant in Karnataka till July 22 in line with the lockdown announced by the state government to counter the spread of COVID-19.

The firm”s operations at Bidadi-based plant in Karnataka will be suspended from July 14 (second shift) to July 22 (first shift), TKM said in a statement.

This is in accordance with the directives issued by the Karnataka government in order to flatten the curve of the rising coronavirus cases in the state, it added.

The company has seen cases rise at its manufacturing plant in the past few days.

On Monday, the automaker announced the emergence of four new cases of COVID-19 at its manufacturing facility.

TKM had earlier reported that its 20 employees have tested positive for COVID-19.

“Since the onset of the pandemic, the company has adopted a proactive and multi-faceted approach to safeguard the physical as well as the mental well-being of all its stakeholders including customers, its employees, dealers and supplier partners,” TKM said.

The company had voluntarily suspended production at its plant in Bidadi even before the national lockdown was announced in March, it noted.

This was done to ensure the safety and well-being of all its employees, the company said.

After unlock, the company has been prudent about the number of employees working at the plant in Bidadi.

“At any given point, only 40-45 per cent of the production workforce was attending work so as to maintain all norms of social distancing. On a daily basis, all employees have to self-declare their health condition, as a reassurance to their safe health,” it added.

Similarly, TKM said it has been relentlessly ensuring that in a situation where an employee tests positive for COVID-19, the company takes adequate measures to quarantine those employees who are suspected to have had primary or secondary contact with the infected employees through appropriate contact tracing.

The company also extends all possible support to the infected employees during the period of treatment, it noted.