Ashok Leyland to export Defence vehicles to Sudan

Chennai: The Hinduja Group flagship, Ashok Leyland, has signed an agreement for an initial supply of Stallion 4X4 army trucks and Falcon buses to the Sudan Defence Ministry. This was announced at the sidelines of the IDEX 2005 in Dubai.

In the first phase, valued at a total of $10 million, 100 Stallion trucks and 100 Falcon buses will be supplied, with prospects for an annual supply of 500 trucks and buses each. As per the agreement with GIAD Auto, the Sudan Government's vehicle assembly unit, Ashok Leyland will supply CKD units (Knock Down), which will then be assembled at GIAD's assembly facility near Khartoum.

The Falcon buses are already in use in the Middle East.

Ram Cowsik, general manger exports, Ashok Leyland said, "Currently, the company is the largest supplier of defence support vehicles to the Indian armed forces. We are now aggressively looking at marketing our defence vehicles in the overseas markets, particularly Middle East and North Africa where we already have a significant presence with commercial vehicles. This development offers a major fillip to our plans to induct Defence vehicles into our export portfolio."

The Company is also currently executing an order bagged in 2004 for supply of 3,322 trucks to Iraq - the largest order so far for commercial vehicles from India.