Daimler India Commercial Vehicles (DICV) has laid the foundation stone for its new bus manufacturing facility in Chennai. The company plans to invest Rs 425 crore in the new factory with an installed capacity of 1,500 buses, which can be expanded to 4,000 buses subsequently. The new plant, expected to be completed by the second quarter of 2015, will manufacture and assemble buses under both the Mercedes-Benz and BharatBenz brand.
The new bus plant located in DICV site spread across 27.91 acres and will manufacture buses of nine tonne, 16 tonne, and above 16 tonne categories. Buses with rear engines will be of Mercedes-Benz make while front-engine buses will be under the BharatBenz brand. Buses of both brands will be manufactured as India-specific products. The technical knowhow for the Mercedes-Benz buses will come from the company’s Brazil facility, while the production would be fully localised here. As for BharatBenz buses, the existing light and heavy duty chassis used in BharatBenz trucks would be utilised.
Wolfgang Bernhard, Daimler AG board member responsible for Daimler Trucks & Buses said, “On the basis of our strong truck business, we are now pressing ahead in the Indian bus market. We will be using our existing suppliers, production site and sales network in India. On the export front, the new facility will also act as an export hub, with export of the first chassis, starting this year, to Africa and Asia. For building the body for our buses, we have partnered with Wrightbus, a global player in bus body building.”
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