"As of now, we are at the prototype stage and are evaluating various opportunities, including the mass rapid transit system (MRTS), for our foray into the bus segment. We are planning to manufacture luxury, inter-city and city buses, and expect to roll out our first bus from our Bhuj plant in Gujarat in the next one-and-a-half years," Rajesh C Mangal, senior vice-president (marketing), AMW, told mediapersons on Monday.
AMW's current portfolio comprises nine truck models ranging from 25 tonne to 49 tonne. It is now looking at launching LCVs in 12 tonne and sub-three tonne categories in a year.
The company has committed an incremental investment of Rs 2,000 crore over the next two years, which also includes separate production lines for buses and LCVs and a tipper fabrication plant, at its integrated manufacturing facility spread over 600 acres at Bhuj, Mangal said. It has already spent Rs 750 crore on its expansion.
AMW's Bhuj plant currently has a capacity to manufacture 10,000 trucks. It is erecting a parallel plant with a capacity of 50,000 units, which would start commercial production from June this year.
"Our idea is to shift manufacturing to the parallel plant and utilise the current facility for R&D and prototype design," he said, adding the company would also look at exporting its tractor trailers and tippers to South Africa and West Asia from this fiscal end.
The company has set a sales target of 17,000 units during the current financial year, as against 5,000 sold last year. AMW, which garners 70 per cent revenues from tippers and the rest from on-road vehicles, expects its turnover to touch Rs 2,500 crore this year, as compared with Rs 530 crore in 2007-08.
