Irizar-TVS' state-of-the-art plant inaugurated

Irizar-TVS, a joint venture company of Ashok Leyland, T V Sundram Iyengar & Sons Ltd. and Irizar S Coop of Spain, has opened its new state-of-the-art facility at Viralimalai near Trichy. The new plant was inaugurated by Mr. K.N. Nehru, Tamil Nadu Minister for Transport, in the presence of Mr. R. Seshasayee, Managing Director, Ashok Leyland, Mr. Jose Manuel Orcasitas, Director, and Mr. R. Dinesh, Executive Director, Irizar-TVS.

The new facility has been established at an investment of Rs. 30 crores, with a capacity to produce 180 buses per month. With this new facility Irizar-TVS has expanded its capacity from the present 1,200 to 2,200 buses per annum.

Mr. Seshasayee said on the occasion: “It is our intention to grow Irizar-TVS because of the combined strengths we have between Irizar, AL and TVS to look at as many offerings in the coach and bus segment”.

Irizar-TVS was incorporated in 2001 with manufacturing facilities at Viralimalai and Pudukkottai. The bus body building division has been in operation since 1981 as part of Sundaram Industries with its three plants in Madurai, Pudukottai and Vralimalai. In 2001, Ashok Leyland joined hands with TVS, and in 2003 the tripartite JV agreement by TVS, AL and Irizar. The Vralimalai and Pudukottai plants are now part of the JV.
In the last eight years, the JV was primarily catering to the requirement of Ashok Leyland’s bus business in the domestic and export market and to a few private operators. With an annual capacity of 1,200 buses, the JV could not exploit the full market potential for buses in India. Therefore, the Board took a decision to expand the capacity to cater not only to the requirements of Ashok Leyland but also to many of the private customers who typically buy the chassis from AL and get the body built from external fabricators.

Mr. Dinesh said: “We wish to partner AL not only in India but also in the export markets. We are already supplying fully-built buses and kits to the new plant in Ras-el-kaimah”.

The new facility has a built-up area of 2 lakh sq. ft. with three production lines and seven paint booths. The facility also has a shower test bay that simulates extreme weather condition in which the finished coach is checked for water leak. The various sub-assemblies and bus/coach assembly are carried out under one roof. The plant makes Irizar-TVS on par with some of the best body building facilities in India.
Irizar-TVS has the capacity and the expertise to build the complete range of buses, starting from the top-end luxury coach to the low-floor and semi low-floor city buses. In fact, Ashok Leyland’s top end luxury coach Luxura was developed based on Irizar’s globally successful platform, Inter-century, and this is built at the Irizar-TVS facility. The company currently builds most of Ashok Leyland’s requirement for the Middle East, including sub assemblies and components for the new AL plant at Ras-el-kaimah. Irizar-TVS is also executing part of the JNNURM order for city buses awarded to Ashok Leyland.

The new facility raises the total capacity of the Viralimalai plant to 2,200 coaches. The modern infrastructure for R&D and Coach building enables the company to bench mark processing time to international standards and enhance production on a continuous basis. Fixturisation would help the company ensure mass production to world class quality. The plant would enable multi-variant products to be manufactured under a single roof.
The modem facilities will enhance the company’s ability to compete in the domestic market and other strongly growing export markets including Asia.

Ashok Leyland is looking at Irizar-TVS as a partner in progress in the bus segment. AL has a target to sell 18,000 to 20,000 buses for the financial year 2010-11 out of which 50 to 60 per cent would be fully built buses. This includes both the domestic and export market. Which means the company is looking at volumes of roughly 10,000 fully built buses for the coming year.

In terms of capacity for bus body building, AL has the Alwar plant which is primarily catering to the city bus segment. The other option available in the domestic market is the Irizar-TVS. Hence the additional capacity created at Irizar-TVS will be fully utlilised in the coming years and the JV partners will need to further expand the capacity considering the market potential, added Mr. Seshasayee.

Seshasayee appeal for continued Govt. support to JNNURM program

Speaking to media at the inaugural event, Mr. R. Seshasayee, Managing Director, Ashok Leyland, observed: “The JNNURM program which has given tremendous amount of satisfaction to commuters, because of better quality and comfortable buses, should not be looked at as a stimulus package given to the commercial vehicle industry for one year alone. This project has to be continued, and we need to have budgetary allocation to support this.

If the program is not continued, then commuters are going to feel deceived as in the coming years the STUs, due to lack of support from the Central Government, are very likely to add lesser number of vehicles with much lesser level of specifications and quality requirements. It may not be fair to go back on the commitment given to the commuters”.

Mr. Seshasayee further said: “Bus transportation and more importantly public transportation particularly in cities is going to be an extremely important part of Urban renewal program. You cannot take the burden out of our roads and our transportation system without a good, sound and comfortable public transportation system. The logical step forward will be to take the JNNURM to the next level of providing inter-modal transportation solutions by linking electronically several modes of transportation. We are at striking distance from revolutionising Public transport in our cities. All that is required is a thrust coming from the state and central government and the JNNURM is a fabulous platform to take this to the next stage. Dont stop here and take things back. Take the logical step forward and that will be the most important part of the Urban renewal program as important as water or sewerage”.

Referring to the tremendous growth opportunities in the bus segment, he said: “We are at an inflection point in the growth of the bus industry in the country. Much like what we have seen in China and Brazil, we are very likely to see an explosive growth in bus transportation. Commuters in the city are increasingly exposed to better quality and travel experience and are demanding the STUs to provide good buses and therefore we are seeing the change happening very rapidly. The market in India will continue to be customer driven. It will not accept a standardised product as is the case in most of the developed markets. We believe that the Indian market will continue to be customer driven and we have to cater to the different needs of the customers. For the JNNURM program alone we developed as many as 19 models based on the requirement of the various STUs”.

AL has targeted sale of 18,000 to 20,000 buses during 2010-11, of which 50-60 per cent will be fully-built buses. In the next 3 to 4 years this percentage of fully-built buses could increase to 90 per cent. Therefore the capacity required to cater to this output would be phenomenal.

Currently AL also has its own bus body building facility in Alwar where it will build buses as per its own designs. Currently the Alwar unit is used for building the ultra low-floor city buses and semi low-floor buses for the JNNURM order. The Alwar plant will play an important role in AL’s future plans for the bus business.

The company has also established a bus plant at Ras-el-kaimah, UAE, for which the sub-assemblies are being manufactured at the Irizar-TVS plant. Considering the growth potential, Irizar-TVS will play a very important role in the growth of bus business. Ashok Leyland is also evaluating options to expand its bus manufacturing capacity both in the domestic and international markets.