Volvo on track with bus body plant

Volvo is getting ready with its new bus body plant in Hoskote near Bangalore. The 70:30 joint venture with Jaico Automobile Engineering will be styled Volvo India Bus Technologies. Volvo is investing Rs 50 crore in the new plant which can build 1,000 buses a year on a two-shift basis.

Head of Volvo Bus South Asia, Jan Vandooren told Autocar Professional that the company is in the process of getting the necessary licenses and permits. “This will be a 100 percent Volvo quality/procedure initiative. The machinery and technology will come from Volvo. We will procure what is available here and import the rest,” he added.

The Swedish company knows it needs to invest more in India to grow further. It also has to consider improving its quality and aftermarket operations. “Some things have to be reinforced in our partnership with Jaico. We must look at product improvements and aftermarket performance to consolidate our operations. Our conviction is that the best way to do this is within a joint venture,” he added.

The bus maker introduced its latest offering in the high-end bus segment at the recently held Busworld 2007 in Mumbai. The B7R CRDi (common rail direct injection) model comes at a price tag of Rs 60 lakh plus (ex-showroom Mumbai). Volvo sold 400 buses in India last year and is targeting 50 percent growth this year.

BRT IMPERATIVE

Vandooren also reiterated the need for the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system in India. The company has delivered 50 buses in two batches to the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation as well as another ten to the Pune Municipal Transport for the cities’ BRT systems.

In Mumbai, BEST's plans for a dedicated bus lane between Thane and Dadar (scheduled to begin last December) is yet to be implemented since some modalities still have to be chalked out. In this case, though, BEST has opted for the less expensive Kinglong range from China.

“There have been no concrete developments with BEST and we hope that they can see the good practice happening in other cities. Finally, it is BEST’s choice and experience will show what kind of results they produce. Politicians need to have the courage and persistence to give top priority to public transport,” Vandooren said.

He cited the example of Mexico City which is perhaps more crowded than Mumbai but has successfully implemented the BRT system. BRT has also succeeded in Curitiba and Sao Paolo (Brazil), Santiago (Chile), Bogota (Columbia) and Gothenburg (Sweden).