Move to Bengaluru proves most fruitful
The seventh edition of Busworld India, the International B2B exhibition for the bus and coach sector, was organised during November 10-12 at the BIEC in Bangalore. The show, organized by Busworld International and Inter Ads Exhibitions, joining forces since 2005, turned out to be an excellent one, attracting participation and visit from all the key stakeholders in the Indian bus and coach sector, including vehicle OEMs, bus body builders, component suppliers, government representatives, STU officials and private fleet operators, among others.
A total of 72 exhibitors from nine countries presented their latest products and developments on a surface of more than 7,000 sq. mtrs. of total exhibition space. Over 4,000 professionals and representatives of the media visited the show. The event provided an opportunity to see the latest models of buses as well as components of the largest domestic and foreign manufacturers.
MG Group and SML Isuzu made a mark by presenting new products at the fair. Daimler and Volvo Buses on the other hand made their debut at Busworld India by putting up an exciting show with their range of buses.
MG Group stole the show on the very first day with the launch of its fully-monocoque ultra-low flat floor coach ‘Columbus’. This airport bus is developed for international markets, with proven drive line aggregates from ZF and Cummins. The coach was fully designed, engineered and developed by MG Group.
Next to this launch, they also presented the Mammoth, their flagship premium luxury coach for the Indian market in a sleeper and seater variant.
SML Isuzu presented two feature-packed luxury buses, the Executive LX Coach and the Exomax Bus. The Executive LX coach is an 18-seater luxury bus equipped with features such as reclining seats, an on-board entertainment system, individual AC, mobile charging points, etc.
Volvo Buses unveiled its new inter-city coach range for the Indian market in the presence of Mr. Hakan Agnevall, President of Volvo Buses Corporation. They presented a Volvo 9400 12 metre coach with a new 8 litre engine developed together with VECV. The Volvo 9400 13.8 metre multi-axle coach had an upgraded engine from 9 to 11 litres, while the 14.5 metre coach was an upgradation to meet the Indian Bharat Stage (BS) 6 emisision standards.
Daimler India Commercial Vehicles made its debut at Busworld India with its school and staff buses of their BharatBenz brand (Bharat meaning ‘India’ in the Hindi language). Both products offer the brand’s qualitative features. During the year, Daimler India established itself as a fast-emerging player in the Indian market with its BharatBenz school, staff and tourist buses, besides the Mercedes-Benz super-high deck coach. They will launch a 16-tonne bus in 2017.
Like in the 2015 edition, a congress was organised by Busworld Academy and the IRU. For this edition, they collaborated with a third partner, ASRTU. An interesting programme, covering lots of topics, was offered, so visitors could pick out the presentations, round-tables and discussions that were relevant to them while enjoying watching the products.
The full programme with all the speakers and their presentations are published on the Busworld Academy website. All presentations are also available for downloading.
Overall, it was evident that Busworld India’s move from Mumbai to Bangalore was a very successful one: more exhibition space, more vehicle manufacturers and more visitors of a better quality. All this added up to more satisfied exhibitors, which in the end determines the success rate of a B2B exhibition.
It will be interesting to see how Busworld India grows from here, given the potential of the Indian bus market, currently the second largest in the world.
In the following section, we present you a comprehensive coverage of all the latest and most interesting products and technologies that were showcased at the fair.
