MG Group stole the show at last year’s Busworld India exhibition held in Mumbai. Since its first participation at Busworld India in 2011, MG has been the show-stopper at the event, coming up with exciting new launches and eye-catching products for both domestic and international markets.
What does MG have up its sleeve at this year’s edition? We get a sneak-peak from Mr. Anil M. Kamat, Managing Director, MG Group, in an exclusive chat.
Excerpts:
MG Group has been one of the most consistent and prominent exhibitors at Busworld India over the years and we have seen you make exciting new launches on this platform. What’s new from MG this year and why do you think Busworld is the right place for you?
MG Group is all set to celebrate completion of 20 years of Bus Building during Busworld India this year. We are equally happy to announce that this year, MG crosses a major milestone of having produced 100,000 buses since inception, a true record in the Indian bus and coach industry. To commemorate this major milestone, we will be unveiling another flagship coach ‘Columbus’ at this year’s Busworld. This new product offering from MG caters to the niche and highly-specialized tarmac application and is also MG’s first initiative towards a fully-monocoque ultra-low flat floor coach. It is fully designed, engineered and developed by MG Group.
The Columbus perfectly fits the ‘Make-in-India’ initiative by offering international standards made in India at competitive prices. We expect the ‘Columbus’ to be a technology demonstrator in its own right. It gives us immense pride to offer this world class product in International markets, with the ‘Made in India’ label and also take constructive feedback from Indian companies for prospects of introducing the Columbus in the Indian market in the times to come.
Busworld India is a specific marquee event for the Indian bus and coach Industry and MG believes in its close association with Busworld since our first participation in 2011.
The Busworld organization is headquartered in Belgium, wherein the largest industry event Busworld Kortrijk is held once in two years. Having attended this marquee international event, we are positive about our association with Busworld in India and are confident that this will be the most successful industry event in India for both international and domestic bus and coach manufacturers in the times to come.
We strongly believe that there could be no better platform than Busworld India to express our passion and prove ourselves to be a committed partner to the global bus & coach industry and hence, we are very excited and eagerly looking forward to making our mark as MG – ‘Committed to Mobility & Growth’.
By regularly staging ourselves as a key exhibitor and launching the most exciting products at the show, MG is communicating to a very important target audience, its Vision: ‘To be the Largest Bus Building Company in India’ and its mission ‘to be highly competent and recognized as the most viable ‘Total Solutions Provider’ encompassing all activities involving concept, design & development of contemporary vehicles and further engineering of the same for efficient, high quality and cost-effective mass production primarily to cater to OEMs, STUs and fleet operators’.
What are the products you are showcasing at this year’s event? What are your expectations from the show?
Apart from unveiling the Columbus, we are very excited to launch the Mammoth, our Flagship Premium Luxury Coach, for the Indian market, with its sleeper and seater variants. The Mammoth is already being produced for international markets since its unveiling last year at Busworld 2015 in Mumbai, but MG is now introducing this product in the domestic market. While both the seater and sleeper versions are being displayed at the exhibition this year, the sleeper version is being unveiled for the first time and we look forward to the industry’s feedback on the same.
We expect very good turnout at Busworld and have reached out to major National Airlines to be a part of the unveiling of our ‘Columbus’ tarmac coach. MG is targeting international customers, some of whom have confirmed their participation, while we are also expecting many existing and new customers to be pleased with our premium luxury coach ‘Mammoth’, which we are launching for the domestic market.
How optimistic are you about the future of the Indian bus market and how is MG placed to handle the future requirements and challenges ahead?
At MG Group, we are very positive about the future of the Indian bus and coach industry and see great potential in the next 3 to 5 years. At close to 90,000 buses produced annually at present, India is one of the biggest markets for coach and bus sales worldwide. With modernization, development and urbanization, mass transportation systems are the need of the hour. Coaches and buses account for 45 per cent of the total passenger movement in India and is by far the biggest segment for mass transportation requirements of the Indian population. With changes in technology and the government’s impetus on new-age electric & hybrid vehicles, Indian companies are fast rolling-out products acceptable in international markets and proving to be more and more acceptable and at the same time being cost-competitive on a global scale.
The Indian ‘bus code’ is a major initiative that envisions the standardization of buses with a focus on passenger safety. We would like the bus code to establish standardized practices for optimum quality and safety to ensure we stand true to the Make-in-India concept and built products at par with international standards.
At MG, we are fully geared up to comply and meet Indian bus code requirements and with our passion in this field, we are constantly focused on gearing ourselves and upgrading ourselves to satisfy market needs, for both domestic and export markets.