April 15: Ashok Leyland Limited (ALL) plans to introduce one commercial vehicle in every tonnage category by the year-end. Speaking to The Indian Express, R Seshasayee, managing director, ALL, said the company's strategy for 1999-2000, in a nutshell, was to offer a whole array of technology options to its consumers.As part of this strategy, ALL will introduce two multi-axle trucks in the 25 and 40 tonne categories and add new models to its existing range of LCV and MCV cargo vehicles.The company is upgrading its vehicles based on all the three platforms - the Leyland platform, Hino technology (fuel injection technology in technical collaboration with a Japanese company), as also the Iveco technology - to make them Euro I compliant.Seshasayee expects the company to fair much better in the current financial year. ``The worst is over for the commercial vehicle sector. We are already seeing some signs of growth in some parts of the country,'' he said. Since January 1999, demand for commercialvehicles has begun to look up. The ALL chief expects the industry to recover by 8 to 10 per cent in the current financial year. Last year, the commercial vehicle segment saw a drop of 20 per cent in sales. However, Ashok Leyland's volume loss was only to the tune of 7 per cent.Moreover, Ashok Leyland expects to do better than the industry average. ``Though the 1996-97 figures is still quite non-achievable, there is demand coming from the southern states of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. And our export markets should also look up,'' he added.The company also hopes to bag the order for converting the existing fleet of DTC uses into CNG buses. In fact, ALL has achieved a breakthrough in this field. A diesel-driven vehicle cannot run on CNG because the compression ratios are very high in the case of a diesel engine. By introducing a carburisation kit and an ignition kit, ALL has succeeded in converting diesel buses into CNG buses. The cost of conversion is around Rs 3.5 lakh to Rs 4 lakh. It is learnt thatTelco does not readily have this technology.As per a Supreme Court order, Delhi Transport Corporation will have to get rid of its diesel-driven buses by April 1, 2001. A brand new CNG bus costs around Rs 9.5 lakh (only the chassis). So the cash-strapped DTC can save substantially by going in for conversion, rather than for brand new CNG buses. Ten dedicated CNG buses manufactured by Leyland are already plying in Mumbai under BEST. In the first lot, ALL expects DTC to let out some 225 to 275 buses for conversion. There are around 1,200 Ashok Leyland DTC buses plying on Delhi roads.
