New Delhi: As the rate of Covid-19 infections surges to a record level in the country, auto major Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) on Monday decided to advance the scheduled maintenance shutdown of all its plants in May for four days.

This was originally scheduled for June 2021, the company said in a release.

According to M&M, the company has scaled up its efforts to ensure the health and safety of its employees, associates, and supporting ecosystem.

"The company has decided to prepone the scheduled maintenance of four working days, in each of its automotive division manufacturing plants, to the month of May 2021, in a staggered manner," M&M said.

It further said that the company continues to work closely with its dealers and suppliers to minimize the impact of disruption in operations due to localized lockdown restrictions in various parts of the country.

The auto industry has been hit hard by the second wave of the Pandemic. The factory shutdowns by almost all major OEMs including Maruti Suzuki, Ashok Leyland, and Hero MotoCorp in May is likely to worsen the sales situation, leaving dealers with supply shortages, just as new vehicle demand is surging.