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Volvo bus unit on stream

BANGALORE: Volvo Bus Corporation’s (VBC) new bus-manufacturing plant in Hoskote will be inaugurated on Thursday by its President, Hakan Karlsson. Volvo Bus Body Technologies India Pvt. Ltd, a joint venture between VBC and Jaico Automobiles, is implementing the project. While VBC holds a 70 per cent stake in the joint venture company, the balance is held by Jaico.

The plant, with an annual capacity of 1,000 buses annually, will roll out 450 buses in 2008, of which about 250 are already booked, according to the Managing director of the joint venture, Akash Passey.

“We are sold out for the next six months,” said Mr. Passey.

Mr. Karlsson said the Indian facility would be a “sourcing hub” for the Asian market. He said Volvo had adopted a mix of strategies to address the transportation needs of the Indian market. In the truck segment, it has a tie-up with the Eicher Group; its acquisition last year of Ingersoll-Rand’s construction equipment division gave it a global presence in that segment as well; and, the joint venture with Jaico now enables the company to have a presence in the “quality bus” segment.

The President said the company wanted to participate in the development of public transport.

Mr. Karlsson said the company’s buses, initially plying inter-city routes, are now a feature of public transport in cities such as Bangalore, Chennai and Pune. Volvo, he said, was an important player in the Indian bus market, whose annual demand was about 25,000 buses.

The new plant, which became ready for production in ten months, was “one of the most modern in the Asian region.”

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