Lockdown: Garage owners face shortage of spare parts

With the Dakshina Kannada district administration allowing authorised vehicle service centres and garages to function from 6 am to 12 noon from Saturday, the vehicle owners are heaving a sigh of relief.

The garages and vehicle service centres had remained closed since April 23 following the lockdown enforced in the district to contain the spread of Covid-19.

The garage owners said that they are facing a shortage of spare parts to repair the vehicles that were brought to the garage. Several vehicle owners had arrived in garages in Mangaluru to get their vehicles repaired.

Amit and Jagadeesh, owners of vehicle service centres in Mangaluru, said, “even during the lockdown, we were getting calls from our customers to help repair their vehicles. If it was a minor repair work -- like tightening the chain of the bikes -- it was carried out by visiting the customer’s place during the lockdown. However major repairs could not be carried out due to the closure of service stations. We are facing an acute shortage of spare parts as shops selling automobile spares have remained closed,” they said.

The garage owners could not visit far-away places to repair the vehicles due to the lockdown. “Customers who are hired by food delivery apps have been contacting us regularly to repair their two-wheelers during the lockdown.”

The majority of the garages that remained open on Saturday morning had their hands full with orders to repair the two-wheelers. Several two-wheelers were parked outside the garage to be repaired.

“The chain of my bike has developed some problems. I was waiting for the garage to open to get it repaired. I was using the same bike with much difficulty to ride to my workplace,” said Raju, an employee of a private firm.

In the meantime, a few garage owners have increased the service charges after petrol prices increased over the last few weeks. “Those who were engaged in fixing punctured tyres have also started charging more now. Earlier, they used to charge Rs 400 for repairing the punctured tyre. Now it has been hiked,” said a two-wheeler owner.