Leading truck and bus maker Ashok Leyland has bagged orders from state transport undertakings to supply 3,600 buses during this fiscal, according to the information provided by the company to the BSE.
The Hinduja group company will supply both fully-built buses and chassis to over 10 STUs.
“The orders have been placed by several STUs on behalf of their many fleet expansion programmes. This is outside of the JNNURM bus programme,” Gopal Mahadevan, Chief Financial Officer, told
The orders come at a time when the M&HCV (medium and heavy commercial vehicle) is showing growth momentum.
Ashok Leyland is a leader in the bus segment with a market share of about 36 per cent in the first quarter, up from 33 per cent in the first three months of the last fiscal.
Overall, the M&HCV segment volumes of Ashok Leyland have increased by 19 per cent in the first quarter as compared with an industry growth of 15 per cent.
“We continue to maintain growth in the domestic M&HCV market and believe that the industry should post 15-20 growth in the current financial year. Ashok Leyland will continue to expand its network, launch new products, and introduce customer-centric initiatives which will help it to maintain its lead. The focus on exports, defence, and after-market continue,” said Vinod K Dasari, Managing Director, Ashok Leyland, in the announcement.
“We will soon launch a new bus in the ICV (intermediate commercial vehicle) segment and that will also contribute to our bus growth this year,” said Mahadevan.