Mumbai: Ashok Leyland, the country''s second-biggest maker of buses and trucks, will start manufacturing buses at its Rs50-crore Dubai plant by February next year.

"Dubai plant is pretty much on target and we will commence production of bus bodies and semi knockdown vehicles (SKD) by February 2008," R Sashasayee, managing director, Ashok Leyland, said on the sidelines of SIAM convention.

He said the plant, with an initial production capacity of 2,000 buses, would subsequently be upgraded in terms of integration and number of units.

Meanwhile, Ashok Leyland and Japan''s Nissan Motors had announced the setting up of three joint ventures to strengthen their light commercial vehicle business. (See: Nissan, Ashok Leyland in wide-ranging LCV joint ventures)

Under the joint venture two plants would be set up, with Ashok Leyland having a majority stake in one and Nissan being major shareholder in the other.

Sashasayee said the joint venture would manufacture light commercial vehicles (LCVs) in the range of 1-6 tonnes. He, however, declined to comment on the location of the plants, investment and product details.

Ashok Leyland, he said, is open to acquisitions and alliances in medium and heavy truck sectors.

"We are open to acquisitions and alliances in MCV (medium commercial vehicles) and HCV (heavy commercial vehicles). Nothing further in LCV though," reports quoted him as saying.