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In the presence of 1,500 guests, including ministers, ambassadors, customers, suppliers and employees, Scania Commercial Vehicles India inaugurated the company’s first bus manufacturing plant in Asia on 31st March.
The new bus production plant is located at the Scania Narasapura facility, in the Indian state of Karnataka, 40 km east of Bangalore.
Investments of EUR 40 million in the first phase of the facility mean that Scania will be able to manufacture 1,000 buses and 3,000 trucks there annually.
Since Scania first started assembling trucks at the Narasapura facility in October 2013, the workforce have grown from 30 to 650 employees.
Expanding Scania’s ambitions
Scania’s President and CEO Martin Lundstedt attended today’s bus facility inauguration and addressed the guests saying:
Anders Grundströmer, Managing Director India, and Martin Lundstedt, President and CEO.
“Less than five years ago I came here with a team from Scania and we bought this piece of land that we are standing on today. At that time we had an idea and a vision of what we wanted to build here. So I hope you can appreciate that it is exciting for us to see it being realised.
“We keep on growing and now that we are opening our second industrial facility with bus production we are further expanding Scania’s ambition to offer state of the art Sustainable Transport Solutions.
“We have entered the Indian market at a pace never seen before in the history of Scania. Our ambition is to sell 2,500 trucks and 1,000 buses per year in the Indian market within the coming years and employ 1,200 people at this facility.
“I am convinced that together with our customers, our partners and our colleagues we will contribute to developing not only our own position here in India, but also in making a contribution to the industrial base, the sustainable transportation system and the economy of India, in the true spirit of Make in India (an Indian government initiative to encourage companies to manufacture their products in India).”
Clean technology for India
Inauguration was also the unofficial kick-off for Scania’s work with sustainable transport solutions in India.
The Indian Transport Minister, Nitin Gadkari, praised Scania’s work to develop sustainable fuels such as biogas in India in his speech at the Scania Narasapura bus facility inauguration today and added:
“This is not only an opening of a new bus factory, it’s also the opening of a new clean technology for India.
“Our Government is recognising the need for clean fuel and sustainability, to build our Smart Cities (Indian Government initiative to improve the environment and transport systems in India’s 100 largest cities) and a quality of life for our citizens.
“Public transport in India has to be redefined as sustainable and clean. Scania’s strategy for India helps reduce India’s dependence on fossil fuels. The Scania model also provides a viable option to create local fuel from local waste and use it for local transport.”
