Tata Motors bags orders for over 5,000 buses

Mumbai, Sep 6 (IANS) Automobile major Tata Motors on Tuesday said it has received orders for over 5,000 buses from 25 state/city transport undertakings (STU) across the country.

"This represents a healthy growth of over 80 per cent-plus compared to last year in the order book position for Tata Motors," the automobile manufacturer said in a statement.

According to the company, the big surge in STU buying is being witnessed after a gap of nearly four years, indicating renewed focus of various state governments/city transport providers on public transport.

Ravi Pisharody, Executive Director, Commercial Vehicle Business Unit, Tata Motors, said the company plans to execute all these orders in the financial year 2016-17.

"We are encouraged by the adoption of latest technologies by these STU's for fleet modernisation, lower total operating costs and expanding user base and ridership," Pisharody said.

"We welcome the collaborative approach employed by these STU's in bettering end user needs, which will further help boost our efforts towards innovations in the public transport space."

The company further added that some of the orders require a fully IT (information technology) -enabled bus with features such as GPS-enabled on-board ITS (intelligent transport system), public information systems, CCTV cameras, onboard WiFi, smart multi-mode ticketing and onboard diagnostics systems via electronic destination boards, to ensure trackability and traceability.