Pune: The largest luxury carmaker Mercedes-Benz on Wednesday announced the restarting of its production at its manufacturing facility at Chakan. The production has commenced in a graded manner following the directives from the Government of Maharashtra to re-open and resume the operations.

“The company will plan a gradual ramp-up in the coming weeks depending completely on the evolving current situation, which is being monitored closely by the Leadership Team,” the company said in a statement.

“The safety, health and well-being of the employees, customers and suppliers continue to be of utmost importance to Mercedes-Benz India and the company has taken all the necessary precautions while restarting operations. The production has begun with only the essential staff at the production facility, adhering to all the required social distancing protocols and mandated safety and sanitization measures implemented. Those employees whose work deliverables do not require them to be present at work will, however, continue to work from home,” read the statement.

Mercedes-Benz India’s select dealers across different regions have also started operations as per the government guidelines and necessary permissions from local authorities.

Mercedes-Benz India dealerships have also started operations in some regions implementing the business restart protocols for maintaining a safe, secure and highly sanitized environment at the dealerships, and also while interacting with customers, visitors and suppliers.

Other than Mercedes-Benz India, many Indian automotive industries such as Royal Enfield and TVS Motor Company on Wednesday announced the re-opening of their operations after being closed for more than a month, in line with government guidelines of the nationwide lockdown amid the coronavirus outbreak.