Tata Motors, a leading automobile manufacturer, recently announced a calibrated restart of manufacturing operations for both commercial and passenger vehicles from its plants located at Pantnagar, Uttarakhand beginning last week and from Sanand, Gujarat. Tata Motors plants in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh; Dharwad, Karnataka; Jamshedpur, Jharkhand; and Pune, only for ambulance vehicle manufacturing, are in final stage of readiness and expect to begin production over the next few days. This commencement of operations follows receipt of all necessary approvals from relevant government authorities.

A release issued by the company stated that the dedicated Restart Teams of the company at each location have curated detailed guidelines and conducted intensive trainings for maintaining social distancing at all workplaces, shop floors and canteen facilities. Enhanced sanitisation measures are being implemented and only limited, operationally required staff is being asked to come to work in personal vehicles or company transport.

Guenter Butschek, CEO & MD, Tata Motors said, “Our utmost priority is the safety and well-being of our employees, customers and ecosystem partners. Therefore, we restart operations with limited, essential staff in each plant, adhering to all mandated safety norms while efficiently meeting operational requirements. The support and cooperation extended by local authorities, state and central Government, our Union partners and our dedicated workforce have been instrumental for a smooth restart. We will scale operations in a graded manner as the entire enabling ecosystem of suppliers, vendors, dealers and customers comes up to speed. We are cautiously optimistic and staying agile to cater to an evolving demand. The lockdown was our opportunity to accelerate our digital journey and evolve new ways of working, while servicing and supporting our customers. We are well positioned to redefine mobility with our new product portfolio, customised offerings and enhanced customer experience.”

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 prudent 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 increasing inflow of vehicles for servicing.

All discussions with customers are being done 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.

The company has recently launched ‘Click to drive’, an end-to-end online platform to select and buy cars from the comfort of their homes. Customers can log in, select the vehicle of their choice, avail a test drive and choose from variety of financing options to book their preferred car and SUV. This platform is integrated with all dealers who arrange for the delivery of the vehicle nationwide.