Ashok Leyland riding high on big bus orders

Commercial vehicle major Ashok Leyland, the flagship company of the Hinduja group, will make 5,000 buses this fiscal at its facility just-commissioned facility at Alwar and at its upcoming Pantnagar plant in Uttarakhand, which it will supply to various state transport undertakings.

The company, along with Tata Motors, has bagged a major share of the Rs5,000-crore contract for buses under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission scheme.

"A unit for building buses has been set up at our Alwar plant at an investment of around Rs65 crore. Apart from catering to the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC), we will manufacture 200 low-entry buses for state transport undertakings of Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh under the JNNURM scheme," Rajive Saharia, executive director (marketing) of Ashok Leyland, told newspersons at Alawar on Friday.

All vehicles in 11 major cities will need to comply with Bharat Stage-IV emission norms by 2010, while other cities will move from Bharat Stage-II to Bharat Stage-III. Ashok Leyland will soon deliver 50 buses to DTC as part of its Rs1,190-crore contract to supply 875 units this fiscal.

Apart from a Rs480-crore contract for the supply of new buses, DTC and Ashok Leyland have signed a Rs710-crore deal for the maintenance of the vehicles over a period of 12 years. Major commercial vehicle makers will deliver 2,200 buses to DTC this fiscal, of which Ashok Leyland's share is 875 buses.

It will sell both ordinary and air-conditioned buses with ultra low entry (ULE) platforms in the price range of Rs49.9 lakh to Rs59.3 lakh. The buses are equipped with automatic transmission and modern conveniences.