With the big boost to the bus industry under the JNNURM program, ACGL has heavily invested on capacity expansion. Its current annual capacity is to build 7,500 buses, which can be raised to 10,000 buses with minimal changes. The company which originally builds buses for Tata Motors to meet its export requirements has also started making buses for the domestic market. In fact, the prestigious Tata Hispano luxury bus is being built at the ACGL plant only.
ACGL, the joint venture between Tata Motors and EDC, a Goa Government undertaking, was set up with the primary objective of aiding economic development of Sattari, a backward area in Goa. While EDC, on its part, provided finance and infrastructure, Tata Motors, the erstwhile Telco, agreed to provide technical and managerial assistance to the joint venture. In 1988, the company fully realised its export potential and entered into a technical collaboration with Fuji Heavy Industries, a Japanese bus coach manufacturer, to establish a facility in the vicinity of the Sheet Metal Division (SMD) factory at Sattari.
Over the years, ACGL has built very strong capabilities in bus body building. The Hispano luxury bus built at ACGL is proof enough of this. ACGL is also a leading supplier of buses for airport operations. Most of the new semi low-floor buses which are being run by airlines like Jet, Kingfisher, Indigo, MDLR and others are being built by the company.
ACGL has so far this year supplied customized vehicles like dog squad vans, police vans, LCV buses for MSRTC, city buses to PMPML, etc. It has a proposal to transport fully-built buses from Goa to Mumbai through RO-RO services of Konkan Railway, and trials are underway. This is indeed a very cost-effective and environment-friendly breakthrough for transportation of commercial vehicles.
The Goa plant was established to manufacture luxury buses with a capacity to manufacture 25 buses every month. Already over 50 of these buses have been built and delivered to customers in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab.
Currently the chassis is being manufactured by Tata Motors in a modular concept and the bus body built at the ACGL facility. ACGL has two units in Goa. The first plant is a press shop and the second unit is for bus body building. As part of the expansion plans, the main plant of Pressings Division in Goa, which is Plant 1, has been partially converted into a bus body building unit with the installation of a modern paint shop. This plant’s current annual capacity is to produce around 2,500 buses. The full capacity of 5,000 buses will be attained once all the presses are shifted to a new location. This is the unit where the Tata Hispano luxury buses are being built.
