Parveen Travels places order for 50 coaches
Scania Metrolink is a premium multi-purpose coach from the Swedish manufacturer for medium and long-distance travel, specially designed to meet the needs of both the driver and the passengers. Scania Commercial Vehicles India (SCVI) handed over the key of the first coach to Parveen Travels at a function held in Chennai recently.
Addressing the media on the occasion, Mr. Anders Grundströmer, Managing Director, Scania India, and Senior Vice President, Scania Group, said the first Scania Metrolink handed over to Parveen Travels was the first such vehicle in Chennai. The coach is specially designed for Indian conditions and is set to upgrade inter-city transportation system to a completely new level of luxury and safety. Passengers will get ultra-luxury features and comfort, coupled with top-notch safety provisions. The vehicle also ensures superior total operating economy that will enhance fuel savings significantly. This, in turn, will keep the CO2 emission low.
A luxury coach
Launched in February 2013, the Scania Metrolink range covers highly reliable multi-purpose coaches for medium and long-distance travel in the Indian market. The buses are already in operation in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala where they have received overwhelming response from the passengers.
The luxury coach is a result of thorough market study and research encompassing factors such as safety, and driver and passenger comfort. It is packed with best-in-class safety features such as black box, speed limit of 85 km/h, six emergency doors with 12 hammers, and a motion detection camera to monitor driver movements.
“The Metrolinks are now produced in Malaysia. From August we will start manufacturing both 13.7 m and 14.5 m buses in India. The bus body will be completely indigenised and the chassis will have 30 per cent local parts. The entire driveline comes from our factory in Sweden. 
We are investing Rs. 300 crores in our new facility at the Narasapura plant near Bangalore where we have a capacity to produce 2,500 trucks and 1,000 buses”, added Mr. Grundströmer.
Parveen Travels, the single largest fleet operator in Tamil Nadu, will operate the bus service between Chennai and Kochi. Mr. A. Afzal, Managing Director, Parveen Travels, and President of Tamil Nadu Omni Bus Operators Association, in his brief address on the occasion, said that “we are adding 50 buses from Scania to our fleet initially, and are planning to invest Rs. 250 crores in the next three years and triple our sales volume.”
The Swedish manufacturer will have nearly 150 buses plying on Indian roads by the year end. The number will be raised to 500 next year with the ramp-up of production. Scania has also been encouraging sustainable transportation by using fuels like biogas and ethanol to reduce carbon emission in the air. It plans to launch a series of modern offerings for the market, including a 12-metre city bus that runs on ethanol and an 18-metre articulated bus. As of now, Metrolink engines have a multi-fuel capacity and can run on diesel, ethanol and biogas.
Mr. Grundströmer further disclosed: “Today the premium bus market is around one per cent in India, and with the expanding middle class, we believe that it will increase to five per cent in five years and 10 per cent in 10 years.”
Scania is also establishing a complete service and dealership network in the country, starting from the southern States. It is also investing in service vans to guarantee service support to customers within two hours of fault reporting.
Fully realising the vital role that drivers play, Scania offers a complete driver training programme, besides an online Fleet Management Service (FMS).
It may be noted that the company recently received an order for buses from the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC).