The Hindu Business Line : JCBL to set up bus body plant for Tata Motors

Talking to presspersons, Mr Rishi Aggarwal, Director, JCBL Ltd, said the bus body building plant is being set up in Lucknow and is likely to be completed by September this year. An investment of Rs 20 crore is being pooled in by JCBL for this venture during the current calendar year.

Mr Aggarwal said that Tata Motors, from being a chassis manufacture is now gearing up to become a `complete solution provider' with manufacturing of `ready-to-use bus'. He, however, did not reveal the production capacity of the plant and said that ``it is still under discussion.'' He said JCBL has already made another investment of Rs 20 crore for the new assembly line for King Long integral coach 6113. ``All these investments are coming in from internal accruals,'' he said.

Mr Aggarwal said King Long, the biggest Asian bus manufacturer, has joined hands with JCBL as a technology partner and said that ``if the volumes justify, they would enter the domestic market as a partner of JCBL, maybe next year.''

The volumes that King Long would look at would be close to 150 for the current calendar year. King Long is a major supplier of buses to the Chinese market in which it sells about 15,000 buses. ``The next expansion that JCBL would look into would be with the entry of King Long next year,'' he said.

Mr Aggarwal was in Pune on Monday for the launch of the JCBL Integral Coach 6113 and said it has made its presence felt in the complete range of products from the economy buses to the super luxury coaches. He said JCBL has already received the first order for 10 buses which included two buses for the Andhra Pradesh State Transport Corporation (APSRTC) and a few from the tour and travel segment. He said eight more buses would be supplied at a later date to APSRTC.

Priced at Rs 48 lakh, he said JCBL was targeting sales of about 150 buses by end of 2004 of which about 40 bus orders would come in from Pune alone. The total capacity of the JCBL plant in Lucknow is 2,400 buses per annum.

He said currently the bus chassis would be imported from King Long and about 150 chassis are likely to be imported during this year. Another addition that the company is looking at is a small luxury bus of 7.9 m length, he said.

Mr Aggarwal said the company, which has a market share of 40 per cent in the organised sector, plans to increase it 70 per cent by the end of the current calendar year.

He said JCBL currently produces 200 buses per month, which would be increased to 250 per month and is planning to increase the number of cargo boxes handled from 600 to 1,000 by March 2004.

He said the company had closed 2003 with a turnover of Rs 46 crore and is estimating a turnover of Rs 70 crore for the current calendar year.

He added that the company has been recording a growth rate of 40 per cent every year.

JCBL is the largest domestic bus body builder with a total production capacity of 550-700 vehicles per month.

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