Scania delivers ‘Made-in-India’ buses to KSRTC

KSRTC is the first public sector transport corporation in India to buy ‘Made-in-India’ buses from Scania India.

Swedish commercial vehicle giant Scania has commenced bus deliveries to the public sector transport service provider, Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) today.

Scania has commenced the operations of its Indian bus manufacturing facility in Narasapura industrial estate near Bangalore in March this year. The KSRTC is the first customer to place major order for locally made premium buses by Scania.

Scania Commercial Vehicles India (SCVI) said it has delivered the first batch of Scania Metrolink buses to KSRTC. In total, KSRTC has placed orders to buy 35 premium Scania Metrolink 13.7 m buses from Scania.

Scania India is offering its vehicles under the brand ‘Airavat Diamond Class’, indicating its luxury and safety, to KSRTC.

Flagging-off the Scania bus service in KSRTC’s fleet, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said, “The KSRTC is making progress in the intercity bus segment and Airavat Diamond Class buses will provide the passengers with the feeling of safety and luxurious travel.”

The KSRTC took Metrolink buses from Scania last year to run them on trial basis. The order came after its satisfaction over trail runs of Scania buses. In the first batch, Scania is learnt to have delivered 10 buses to KSRTC today.

Automotive India News was the first publication to report on Scania commencing its bus deliveries this week to KSRTC (Click here to read related report)

Anders Grundströmer, Managing Director-Scania India and Senior Vice President of Scania Group said the company achieved another milestone with KSRTC orders. It indicates that Scania will remain as growth drivers in the Indian transport sector.

The Metrolink buses to KSRTC comes with several advanced features including Fleet Management Service (FMS). The windows and front-rear-side roof hatches can be used as exits at the time of emergency.

Rajender Kumar Kataria, Managing Director, KSRTC, said the growing awareness on safety, comfort and luxury has led the KSRTC to develop its pemium brand Airavat Diamond Class.

Earlier Scania  India was selling its Metrolink buses to private bus operators in India by importing them from its overseas manufacturing facilities. Now with Scania India began assembling buses in its local manufacturing plant, it is expected to give brutal competition to its Swedish arch rival Volvo, which has been dominating the Indian premium inter-city bus segment for several years.