By IANS
Jalandhar : A company that was started to make bullock carts way back in 1935 has tied up with global automobile giant DaimlerChrysler to manufacture Mercedes-Benz buses.
The contract between DaimlerChrysler and the Jalandhar based Sutlej Motors Limited (SML) was announced Tuesday in the German city of Stuttgart, the birth place and main manufacturing hub of Mercedes vehicles, reports reaching here said.
SML has created a pan-India niche market for itself in manufacturing buses with latest, modern designs and sophisticated interiors. It is already supplying luxury coaches and low-floor buses to transport companies and airports across India.
DaimlerChrysler is the world’s biggest bus manufacturer and already makes chassis in India at its subsidiary DaimlerChrysler India Private Ltd (DCIL).
SML sources told IANS that the initial order will be for manufacturing 100 Mercedes buses.
SML is one of the biggest coach manufacturers in the country now. It started making bus bodies in 1965.
The new tie-up will provide direct competition to Swedish bus manufacturer Volvo, which already has significant presence on the Indian roads through its buses and trucks, and India’s own Tata Motors.
“We have tied up with Sutlej Motors for manufacturing buses. We cannot disclose the actual agreement as of now,” DaimlerChrysler’s managing director and chief executive officer Wilfried Aulbur said here last month.
The automobile giant based on its experience of the last 3-4 years is already eyeing the Punjab and Chandigarh markets for pushing Mercedes car sales. The company already recognizes industrial hub Ludhiana as the Mercedes capital of India.
According to an announcement in Stuttgart, production of the coaches would start in Pune in the first quarter of next year.
The agreement between DaimlerChrysler and SML includes development, production, marketing, sales and after sales of the rear-engine coaches. While DCIL will manufacture the Mercedes-Benz chassis, SML would build the body for the buses.