- Tata Motors has resumed production at Pantnagar and Sanand plants
- The company has also opened select dealerships across the country
Tata Motors has announced a restart of manufacturing operations for both commercial and passenger vehicles from its plants located at Pantnagar (Uttarakhand) beginning last week and from Sanand (Gujarat). The plants in Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh), Dharwad (Karnataka), Jamshedpur (Jharkhand) and Pune (only for ambulance vehicle manufacturing) are in the final stage of readiness and are expected to begin production over the next few days.
The company has appointed dedicated restart teams at each location that have curated detailed guidelines and conducted intensive training for maintaining social distancing at all workplaces, shop floors and canteen facilities. Sanitisation measures are being implemented and only limited, operationally required staff is being asked to come to work in personal vehicles or company transport.
Every employee re-joining the workplace is required to download and use the mandatory ‘Aarogya Setu’ app. Employees are also required to periodically check-in and declare the status of their own, as well as their family’s health on the Tata Motors in-house health track portal. In addition, all employees and visitors entering and exiting the plant premises are also being screened for temperature checks.
Nearly 200 dealerships and 300 workshops for passenger vehicles and over 400 sales outlets and 885 workshops for commercial vehicles have begun operations with a new set of Standard Operating Procedure (SOPs) defining minimal interactions and maintaining social distance while engaging with customers. Over the last few days, customers have initiated new bookings, deliveries of passenger vehicles have commenced and workshops are seeing increase in flow of vehicles for servicing.
All discussions with customers are undertaken virtually using digital tools and any meetings, if necessary, are being conducted with prior appointments and post verification of all requirements. Documents for vehicle insurance and registration are being collected via mail or specially installed drop boxes and vehicle deliveries are being done only after all formalities are completed. Customer vehicles arriving at workshops for repairs and servicing too are completely sanitised before being handed over post service. Test drives are being offered on request and with prior appointment at the customer’s preferred location. Only one person drives the vehicle with a dealer staff member sitting in the rear seat to avoid any physical contact. Following every test drive, the vehicle is fully sanitised including replacing protective covers shielding the interiors of the vehicle that come in contact while driving.
