Tata secures massive bus order

Tata Motors recently inked a deal that will see it supply 2700 buses to a variety of Indian state transit authorities

Indian automotive behemoth Tata Motors has received an order for a staggering 2700 of its URBAN buses, with the vehicles to be supplied to a number of cities across the Indian sub-continent.

The order stems from India's ongoing Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission scheme – a massive program of urban modernisation and infrastructure upgrades launched by the Indian government in 2005.

The buses will be powered by Cummins engines mated to either a six-speed manual or automatic transmission. They will be built by Tata Marcopolo Motors Limited at its production facilities in Dharwad in India's west and Lucknow in the nation's north.

The URBAN bus also benefits from internal CCTV camera monitoring, larger windows and lower, wider doors, says Tata, and will incorporate ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems) technology that allows it to display a variety of route-specific information on electronic display boards.

On-board telemetry allows the buses to be monitored from a central control room, where operators can also remotely access an individual bus's diagnostics system and track each bus's location and performance.

According to Ravi Pisharody, Executive Director, Commercial Vehicles Business Unit, Tata Motors, this latest order underlines the firm's reputation as an urban transit expert.

"With these orders Tata Motors reinforces its position as a leading partner to state transportation corporations in providing them with the right product and service solutions, enabling them to create and maintain a sustainable public transportation system," he says.

"These buses are manufactured with state-of-the-art technologies and expertise in systems for bodybuilding and bus body design, conforming to international standards in quality and safety as well as the rollover tests mandated by the Urban Development Ministry."

Tata says it will be supplying the trucks shortly, with the buses to join the 60,000-odd other Marcopolo models already plying India's roads.

Tata secures massive bus order

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