Earthmoving and construction equipment major JCB India on Friday said it will temporarily suspend operations for 10 days across its manufacturing facilities in the wake of the surge in COVID-19 cases.

The company will pause manufacturing operations starting from May 1 across the plants located at Ballabgarh, Jaipur and Pune.

"Due to an increase in the infection rate around us, the health and safety of our colleagues and their families have become even more important. We have decided to pause manufacturing operations for 10 days, starting on May 1, 2021.

"This is a precautionary measure and applies to all our manufacturing locations at Ballabgarh, Pune and Jaipur," JCB India CEO and managing director Deepak Shetty said in a statement.

With the surge of cases in the second wave of the pandemic, Shetty said it is important to break the chain of the infection.

Most of our employees in our offices are already working from home and this temporary pause of manufacturing activities will further help in lowering the active number of cases in and around our manufacturing facilities," he added.

Stating that sufficient inventory levels have been built to support the demand for its products during this period, Shetty said, "We do not foresee any challenges in the availability of JCB products for our customers in India or for our export markets".

All customer and dealer-facing functions of the company will operate normally while adhering to local guidelines, he said, adding "There will be no disruption in product support for equipment being used by our customers due to this pause".

Automobile makers Hero MotoCorp, Maruti Suzuki India and MG Motors have already announced the temporary suspension of operations at their manufacturing facilities in the wake of the rise in COVID-19 cases across the country.

(Edited by : Jomy)