Sutlej Boards Ikarus For Low-Floor Bus Ride

Joint venture planned with the Hungarian firm with an eye on contracts from city transport bodies such as the Delhi Transport Corporation

Jallandhar-based Sutlej Motors Ltd will enter into a joint venture with Hungarys Ikarus Vehicle Manufacturing Co Ltd for manufacturing low-floor passenger buses that can be used by organisations like the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC).

Sutlej Motors has also come out with Indias first monocoque luxury passenger coaches under the brand name of Lexia Interstate. A monocoque body is one where the entire vehicle is one unit, unlike most present vehicles where the body is built over the chassis.

 

We will incorporate the joint venture company, Sutlej Ikarus Vehicle Manufacturing Co Ltd, soon and the final decision will depend on the volume of order that we get from organisations like the DTC for low-floor passenger buses, Kulwant S Wilkhu, Sutlej Motors head of marketing said yesterday. In the joint venture, Sutlej Motors will have the majority equity stake, while Ikarus, one of the biggest manufacturers of buses in the world, will have the minority stake. The joint venture company is one of the nine companies, including Ashok Leyland and Volvo, which has responded to the bid for a contract for supplying about 1500 low-floor passenger buses to DTC.

The Jallandhar-based Rs 35 crore Sutlej Motors, part of the Sutlej group of companies promoted by the Wikhlu family, will also start commercial production of its 44-seater Lexia Interstate luxury passenger coaches from April. Lexia Interstate is an improvement on Sutlej Motors Lexia series of passenger coaches and has unique features like a monocoque body and computer-controlled dashboard and steering.

According to Wilkhu, The computer has been added to Lexia Interstate so that during long journeys, for which the vehicle has been designed, the stress factor on drivers is lessened. The vehicle, two of which have been sold to a company in Bangalore on a trial basis, is likely to be priced around Rs 35 lakh. Sutlej Motors was set up in 1974 and initially used to manufacture bodies for trucks and buses. However, in the late 80s and early 90s the company undertook a lot of research work to make forays into making buses and luxury coaches.

Wilkhu explained how the company made it through trial and error: We had gone to Germany looking for a joint venture partner, but realised the foreign companies demands were too high. One such company said that we should go back and learn through trial and error and that is exactly what we have done. Most Sutlej products give priority to impact energy absorbing structure for safety of passengers keeping in mind the Indian road conditions.

With an all-India network, the group companies include Sutlej Coach products Pvt Ltd, Sutlej Motors International Ltd, Sutlej Mobiles Lvt Ltd and Sutlej Machine Tools Pvt Ltd.