Tata Motors bags orders for 5,000 buses worth Rs 900 cr from STUs

New Delhi: Tata Motors Tuesday said it has bagged orders of over 5,000 buses worth of about Rs 900 crore from 25 state/city transport undertakings (STUs) across the country.  “Tata Motors plans to execute all these orders in 2016-17. The orders will definitely enable us to further strengthen our leadership position in the CV passenger space,” Tata Motors Executive Director, Commercial Vehicle Business Unit, Ravi Pisharody said in a statement. Some of the orders require a fully IT-enabled bus to ensure trackability and traceability with features like public information systems, electronic destination boards, CCTV cameras, smart multi-mode ticketing and GPS-enabled on-board intelligent transport system, WiFi and diagnostics systems, the company said. “We are encouraged by adoption of latest technologies by these STUs for fleet modernisation, lower total operating costs, expanding user base and ridership,” Pisharody added. Over 1,500 of the ordered buses will be fully built and integrated with these features at Tata Motors JV manufacturing facility at Tata Marcopolo (Dharwad and Lucknow) and ACGL Goa. The company said the orders represented a healthy growth of over 80 per cent compared to last year in the orderbook position for Tata Motors. “The big surge in STU buying across is being witnessed after a gap of nearly four years, indicating renewed focus of various state governments and city transport providers on public transport,” it added. Tata Motors Business Head (Commercial Vehicles Passenger) Sandeep Kumar said the company has nearly doubled its orderbook in 2016-17 already and is adequately prepared to cater to the current and future demand for its buses.