Sweden-based bus manufacturer Volvo has opted for Bangalore for setting up its proposed bus body-building unit instead of Andhra Pradesh, which had offered the bus giant sops for setting up the unit in Chittoor district.Earlier, Volvo had evinced interest in setting up a unit near Chittoor after a meeting with Andhra Pradesh's transport minister Kanna Lakshminarayana and the then managing director of APSRTC M V Krishna Rao."Volvo gave up the idea, since Bangalore is already having strong infrastructure in bus bodybuilding," Rao said today.Volvo was earlier outsourcing the bodybuilding in India to a Bangalore-based company, Jaico Automobiles (Azad Group).While engine parts and chasis are manufactured in Sweden, bodybuilding was done in the outsourcing unit.However, there were a spate of complaints on defects in structural design, defective air-conditioning against the buses.Following the complaints, the company decided to set up its own bus body building unit in the country.Volvo opted for Karnataka as it already has a strong infrastructure for bus body building units.
