Anil Kamat, Managing Director, MG Group, spoke to Rajesh Rajgor at Prawaas 3.0 at Hyderabad where he elaborated about the new Columbus coach and his company’s expectation from the reviving Indian bus market. He also highlighted the company’s order pipeline and its foray into electric Columbus, mobile medical units, reefer vehicles and caravans
Focus at Prawaas 3.0
We are extremely privileged, honoured and proud to be part of Prawaas 3.0. It’s indeed very heartwarming to see the kind of footfalls that Prawaas 3.0 has garnered. The entire exhibition setup has been really upgraded. Hats off to the BOCI team and the managers of the event. From MG, we have launched our tarmac coach which is at the moment the only ultra-low floor, completely flat floor tarmac coach available in India, meeting all the Airport Handling Manual (AHM) 2021 guidelines. As an OEM our focus is on the aviation sector, particularly in the niche segment of tarmac coaches and that’s what we are trying to communicate here at Prawaas 3.0
Market Expectations
The past two years of the pandemic were horrible for the entire industry. However, the positive side of it is that as an industry all the players have been very resilient. Today, as the market revives, the demand is picking up. We can see a lot of intercity coaches here at the show and the demand will surely pick up during the festive months. For certain segments of the bus sector, there is a pent-up demand, as for example school buses, stage carriers and staff bus segments. So, I think we are looking at a good 2-3 years from now for the bus and coach industry.
Order Pipeline
The order pipeline is certainly looking encouraging. We are as always working very closely with OEMs like Ashok Leyland and Daimler. Apart from that, we have some key handovers for a prestigious order which we got from some of our esteemed fleet operators for the MRTC. We are hoping for some more orders from STUs. In terms of intercity BS VI regime, we did launch the new version of our Glider and Glider Z on Bharat Benz chassis. We also have models called Lyra and Lyra Z, the new fascia’s in BS VI on Ashok Leyland, Tata Motor and Eisha chassis. A length of 13.5 metres is the way to go now and that shift in focus has happened very clearly. We are also working on the same and look forward to building a good number of coaches once the intercity market picks up.
Technology Roadmap
The first step that we would be taking, which is a very natural step for us having launched Columbus, would be to convert Columbus into electric. That’s the first kind of electric project that we would undertake as an organisation. Apart from that, we are open to build electric vehicles for other companies who have their own electric drive lines and technologies.
New Products and Segments
We have also got into ambulances and mobile medical units in a big way and that’s also going to be a major focus area for MG going forward. We also intend to and have started in a small way to do a lot more and get into reefer containers as well. Caravan is also definitely our interest area and that is something which is our chairman’s desired product line. We have the skill and we have also revived our relationship with Force Motors Limited with whom we were working on ambulances and mobile medical units.