Sweden's Scania AB will invest $30.1 million (Rs150 crore) to set up an assembly plant in Bangalore, as the Swedish truck maker looks for growth in heavy haulage trucks and inter-city buses in Asia's third-largest economy.

Södertälje-based Scania said in a statement it will build the assembly plant in Narasapura Industrial Area located 40km east of Bangalore, which will roll out 2,000 heavy haulage trucks and 1,000 inter-city buses and coaches over the next five years.

Scania expects production to start in early 2013 and nearly 800 people will be employed at the facility in the longer term. 

The industrial operations will consist of final assembly of truck and bus chassis and bodywork and fitting out of complete vehicles. Scania plans to have its Indian headquarters as well as a service workshop and a central parts warehouse, also at the same site. 

Scania plans to produce around 2000 heavy haulage trucks and 1000 inter-city buses and coaches from this plant within five years. Besides these vehicles, Scania is also preparing to sell lesser fuel consumption engines to its OEM customers.  

''This investment furthers Scania's committed to the Indian market and this is the right moment for us. With the commercial vehicles segment likely to register a higher volume growth of 8-10 per cent this year, the outlook for the industry is very promising,'' said, Henrik Fagrenius, managing director of Scania.