Volvo-Eicher Commercial Vehicles (VECV) said on Tuesday that it plans to roll out its semi low-floor buses by the second half of next year.

“By the second half of 2010, we will have a range of buses in the semi low-floor category, produced under the joint venture with Volvo. Some will also wear the Eicher badge,” said Siddhartha Lal, CEO and Managing Director, Eicher Motors.

He was speaking to newspersons on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum’s India Economic Summit.

He added that buses will conform to the 650 mm height requirement of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) order for semi low-floor buses.

VECV is believed to have an order for around 150 buses under the Government’s JNNURM programme. Lal said that size of the city bus market is currently around 3,000-5,000 units a year.

“We will see the scale moving towards 20,000 buses a year. At the start, we will be producing 100 buses per month and will later go up to much more than that,” he said.

The company is also in discussion with various State Governments and city authorities to provide these buses for public transportation.

Taken from Business Line