India’s second largest commercial vehicle manufacturer, Ashok Leyland has secured an order for 1,400 school buses in the UAE. This is its largest order for school buses in that country.
In a press release, the company said that the 55-seater Falcon bus and 32-seater Oyster bus will be supplied from its $50-million manufacturing facility in Ras Al Khaimah, UAE. Established in 2008, the plant is the only certified local bus-making facility in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, the company says. It has an installed capacity of 4,000 buses a year and has rolled out 25,500 so far.
“This is a historic moment for Ashok Leyland in the UAE. This is a testament to the reliability, durability and robustness of our buses and reaffirms the faith that our customers have on our buses being the safest for transporting school students. These products are made in the UAE assembly plant,” Dheeraj Hinduja, Executive Chairman, Ashok Leyland, was quoted in the press release.
“The product concepts originate in the UAE, the designs are done by our engineers in UAE, and are assembled in the factory in UAE, with more than 55 per cent of parts sourced in UAE,” he added.
Hinduja also said there is a huge opportunity for Switch Mobility, the UK-based electric vehicle arm of Ashok Leyland, to expand in the UAE and GCC, with planned launches soon.
The fleet deal for the GCC-made buses has been bagged by Ashok Leyland’s UAE distribution partnerSwaidan Trading-Al Naboodah Group and most of the supplies will be to Emirates Transport and STS Group, the company said.
Amandeep Singh, Head-International Operations, Ashok Leyland, said, “Ashok Leyland is one of the fastest growing brands in the Middle East with a growing market presence in UAE. We have aggressive plans to enhance our portfolio in the light commercial vehicle space.”
New high
Reacting to the UAE order, stocks of Ashok Leyland touched a 52-week high of ₹161.6 apiece on the National Stock Exchange on Thursday.