Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) announced on Monday that it had hiked its production capacities with immediate effect. This is in response ``to the overwhelming demand for the Quanto, XUV500 and Rexton across the country,`` the company said in a statement.

Accordingly, the capacity of the Quanto has been raised to 3,500 units per month, the XUV500 to 4,500 units and the SsangYong Rexton to 500 units. The increase in capacity is expected to bring down the waiting period for these popular products.

Bookings for these brands have been opened across more centres in India. Mahindra`s Quanto has received bookings of more than 12,000 units within the first two months of its launch while deliveries for the XUV500 are as per schedule. The company`s premium SUV, the SsangYong Rexton, with over 1,500 bookings across nine cities, is to be launched in more cities this month, M&M said.

In a statement, Pravin Shah, Chief Executive, Automotive Division, Mahindra & Mahindra said, ``While we have been overwhelmed at the response from our customers to all the three products which are at different price points, we thought it best to expand capacities so that prospective customers are not inconvenienced with long waiting periods.``

Shares of the company declined Rs 6, or 0.64%, to trade at Rs 935.25. The total volume of shares traded was 42,728 at the BSE (Monday).