Since 1968, Shavo Norgren (I) Pvt. Ltd. (Shavo) has been associated with all the major industries in the country due to its consistent quality work on pneumatic products. However, at Busworld India, Shavo introduced itself as an Indian bus door manufacturer.
Speaking exclusively to MOTORINDIA, Mr. Vishal Vora, Director, said: “We have been in pneumatics since the last 50 years and have ventured into bus door systems since last year. Needless to say, we bring to the table pneumatic control door-opening system for buses and coaches on the back of our strong in-house engineering and technical capabilities to assimilate knowledge about pneumatic products.”
Shavo’s capability is across various door types for buses. “We have jack-knife doors, in-swing out-swing doors, floating doors. We also have fully electric jack-knife doors and are working on in-swing and out-swing fully electrical doors that we will roll out by the end of the year. It will be through electricals without pneumatics,” beamed Mr. Vora.
Shavo will undertake the business for doors from its existing set-up at Rabale, near Mumbai. When probed on capacity and expansion plan if any to cater the pouring requirements, Mr. Vora stated: “Currently, we don’t have any capacity constraints, as it is a cyclical as well as project-based business. Whether the buses are of conventional fuel or electric we have the capability to design and modify products as per the OEM customers’ requirements at our current capacity.”
Meeting Indian requirement
Historically India has not been a high-quality manufacturer of bus door systems. The country has had international suppliers who supply doors. This is where Shavo brings the difference. “Ours is all about being an Indian company able to supply high quality doors as there is a lot of manufacturing resource available in India for doors. With luxury buses increasing, it is the need of the hour that there is a good supplier of door systems in India and we are trying to cater to the same”, he explained.
However, at a time when a lot of the manual doors are still made of mild steel, Shavo has started with aluminum doors, so that the energy required to operate the doors is less.
“Less weight makes the bus more fuel efficient. That along with variants with electro-pneumatic and electronic circuit suitable for electric bus requirements gives us an edge over competition. Also, with changing norms like Bus Code, it is of paramount importance that emphasis is on moving from manual to automated systems. Our doors come with safety features like anti-pinch sensors that allow the door to retract automatically when there is an obstruction at the door, all as per ARAI requirements,” asserted the Director.
When asked about service back-up and product pricing, he replied: “We have been quite successful not just because of quality but also because of our good service back-up especially for the bus body builders. Price follows if the quality is good and if we are willing to provide good service. Assume a door is stuck or not opening/closing properly; when the customer brings the bus back to the depot, we send our person to rectify the issue and explain the same to them. It comes under service warranty even though most of the bus manufacturer can manage it themselves.”