DICV starts production of buses at Oragadam plant

Daimler India Commercial Vehicles (DICV) has started rolling out buses from its Oragadam manufacturing facility. The plant has been constructed with an investment of Rs. 425 crore and has an initial capacity of 1,500 units which can be further expanded to 4,000 units subsequently.

The facility will manufacture buses with gross vehicle weights of 9, 16 and above 16 tons under the BharatBenz and Mercedes-Benz brands.

BharatBenz buses will be front-engine and used for short distance travel (school, staff and tourist transportation). School buses will be the first vehicle to be rolled out under the brand.

Mercedes-Benz buses will cater to the premium segment. These vehicles will be rear-engined and used for inter-city transportation. DICV claims that the new multi-axle coach of Mercedes-Benz buses and the first 15-metre bus in India.

The DICV plant is now the only Daimler Trucks plant worldwide to produce trucks, buses and engines with three brands - Mercedes-Benz, BharatBenz and FUSO - under one roof. The bus chassis are rolled out from the same assembly line as that of BharatBenz trucks, as they are technologically similar to the medium-duty BharatBenz trucks.

Before the local bus production started, DICV has already started to export its bus chassis from India to Egypt in February, other markets to follow in future.