BANGALORE – Volvo Buses has received an order for an additional 240 city buses to Bangalore. There are 70 Volvo buses already in use in the city.

Bangalore’s city bus operator, Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corp., will purchase the buses. The company decided two years ago to invest in modern, air-conditioned city buses from Volvo and has reported a favorable reaction to the buses.

“Passengers are very satisfied with the comfort provided by the Volvo buses,” said Upendra Tripathy, managing director of Bangalore Metropolitan Transport.

The new buses will be delivered in 2008 and the beginning of 2009. Forty of the buses will be used between Bangalore center and the new airport and the others will operate various routes around the city.

The buses will be built in Volvo’s plant in Bangalore. The chassis will be produced in the joint plant with Volvo Trucks and the bodies in Volvo’s new body plant that was inaugurated at the end of January. Volvo’s city bus in India is built on the B7RLE chassis and the body is designed after the Volvo 8700 European model.

It features low entry, a wheelchair ramp and air conditioning. The 290-horsepower engine meets the Euro III emission standard.

“Bangalore Metropolitan Transport’s decision after two years of testing to now make a larger investment is an important step in our company’s development,” said Akash Passey, managing director of Volvo Bus Body Technologies India. “Currently, we are the market leader with regard to luxury, air-conditioned inter-city buses and we are now also making a major advance in the city bus segment. In addition to Bangalore, we have sold city buses to Pune, Chennai and Mysore. When we now have opened our own body plant, we have all the possibilities to grow, in India as well as on export markets.” Source: indusbusinessjournal.com