Ashok Leyland bags order for 2,850 buses from Tamil Nadu

Hinduja flagship company Ashok Leyland today said it has bagged order for 2,850 buses from the Tamil Nadu government.

The company, however, did not disclose the value of the order which it has bagged from the Institute of Road Transport, the nodal agency for procurement of vehicles for Tamil Nadu.

"The order includes a requirement from MTC (Metropolitan Transport Corporation, Chennai) for 150 vehicles conforming to BS IV emission norms and is the very first such order to be received from a state transport undertaking," the company said in a statement.

Ashok Leyland Executive Director Marketing Rajive Saharia said the order represented almost 95 per cent of the entire requirement of buses for Tamil Nadu.

"While on one hand, it goes a long way in consolidating our leadership status in the bus segment both in India, and more particularly in Tamil Nadu, it also reveals our readiness to address the more stringent emission norms that are expected to come into effect in October 2010," he added.

The order is for seven state transport undertakings in the state, including Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporations of Villupuram, Coimbatore, Salem, Kumbakonam and Madurai.