Daimler's new bus facility near Chennai to go onstream by second quarter.

Daimler India Commercial Vehicle Pvt. Ltd. (DICV), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Daimler AG, Germany, said its new 50 million bus facility near Chennai would go onstream by second quarter. This will be the first Daimler plant worldwide to produce trucks, buses, and engines for a total of three brands. Meanwhile the company has started exporting bus chassis from India.

In a statement the company said construction of the DICV bus plant, which started in March 2014 is progressing well and the company expect to start production t the end of the second quarter. The facility, which is coming at Oragadam inside the DICV's existing facility, will manufacture Mercedes Benz and BharatBenz buses at the plant.

Spread across an area of 113,000 square meters, the plant is being built within the existing premises of DICV. The plant will have an installed capacity of 1,500 vehicles per year in the initial phase, and can be expanded to 4,000 units subsequently. Once construction is completed, the facility in Oragadam will be the first Daimler plant worldwide to produce trucks, buses, and engines for a total of three brands.

Meanwhile, the company started exporting bus chassis. The shipment was delivered at Egypt's capital Cairo. The products in question are nine-tonne bus chassis that MCV will equip with bodies in Cairo. Starting immediately, the finished vehicles will be sold as Mercedes-Benz-brand buses through MCV's nationwide sales network.


BS