Mercedes-Benz has began construction of its new facility for the body building of its City buses housed within their already existing Chakan Plant in Pune. The foundation stone of the new facility was laid by Dr. Wilfried Aulbur, Managing Director and CEO of Mercedes-Benz India along with Mr. Piyush Arora (Director, Technical, Mercedes-Benz India) & Mr. Srinivas Chilukuri, General Manager, Bus Sales & Marketing, Mercedes-Benz India. The infrastructure of the plant was created with a vision to address future expansion needs, underscoring the long-term growth plans of the company in India. Announcement of this new set-up comes up within a short time-span of announcing the foray into the city bus segment in June 2010. This new assembly line will cater to the production requirements of the city buses to start with. Start of production is expected around the second half of 2011.
Mercedes-Benz is the inventor of the first bus in the world and ever since, has pioneered innovations that have revolutionized motorized public transport. The engagement of Mercedes-Benz with India dates back to 1954 when they started collaboration for trucks. Mercedes-Benz introduced its two-axle luxury coaches in the last quarter of 2008 & the Multi-axle coaches at the Auto Expo in 2010 in the Indian market. Both two axle and three axle buses have been utilized and well appreciated by both by private and government transport organizations who have been impressed with comfort & safety, overall cost of operation and robustness of the products.
