Auto Parts Asia — August 2017

32 | AutoPartsAsia | AUGUST 2017

certified by MAN, Germany. “Most

of our customers, most importantly

Scania, were impressed and

convinced by the design and build

quality of Mammoth,” Kamat said.

The ‘Columbus’, a special application

coach, fully designed, developed

and engineered by MG Group

for the airline industry is another

spectacular product. ‘Columbus’ has

a rear engine, offering total flexibility.

‘Columbus’ and ‘Mammoth’ are made

in India to international standards.

‘Mammoth,’ being a front-engine

ladder frame based coach, gives only

limited freedom and flexibility in body

design. The biggest challenge is to

give the passenger a saloon space

in the coach, and make the inside

ambience very attractive, without

revealing the position of the engine.

The chassis from MAN, Europe’s

leading commercial vehicle

manufacturer, is rugged and robust,

which caters aptly to the Indian

operating conditions with increased

driving safety, while significantly

reducing body movements for best

ride-comfort. With eight emergency

exits, the coach has various other

safety measures such as no

sharp corners, seat belts for every

passenger and the ‘EM – Secure’

Rear Emergency Exit, which is

patented by MG as the world’s

first. The reason behind keeping an

emergency exit behind the vehicle

is that in an emergency, it would be

difficult to break the glass panel of the

emergency window. Besides, jumping

out of the widow, which is about five

feet above the ground level, would be

traumatic and may cause injuries.

For the ‘Mammoth’ project, the

concept-to-product cycle time was

nine months, which was one of the

key factors for Scania to choose

MG. The company is exporting the

‘Mammoth’ to Africa, Bangladesh,

Maldives and Nepal. The first four

coaches for the Indian market will go

to KPN Travels soon.

MG Group developed ‘Columbus’

to commemorate 20 years of its

operations. For building its own

coach for the first time, it made sense

to go in the monocoque route as it

offered flexibility in packaging the

aggregates. Besides, monocoque

made the interior designing flexible.

MG Group’s acumen is proved in

the ‘Columbus’, which has a wheel-

base of 7,450 mm. It was intentionally

given this expanse to optimise the

passenger capacity. Equipped with

the latest technologies such as

ECAS, ABS, and CAN bus systems,

the new coach complies fully with the

regulations of the Airport Handling

Manual. “By January 2018, we should

be able to start promoting the product

in a big way to begin sales. There is

a lot of interest from export markets

also,” Kamat said.

Scania Venture

According to Kamat the venture

with Scania is really big for the MG

Group. “It is a matter of great pride

for our company to be recognised

and partnered by a renowned global

commercial vehicle giant like Scania.

Our plant has also been audited and

cleared recently by Daimler India

Commercial Vehicles and we hope

to start working with them soon,” he

said.

On the partnership with MG Group,

Mikael Benje, Managing Director,

Scania India said, “India is a fast

evolving market and Scania’s strategy

in India is to stay at the forefront of

the bus and coach industry with new

and sustainable product offerings

keeping with the current market

dynamics. MG Group, a leading

and established bus body building

company, fits well into the Scania

strategy giving us the required

bandwidth, speed and flexibility for us

to achieve our business objectives.

We look forward to this association

which we are sure will ultimately

benefit our customers and the market

as a whole.”

Scania offers a complete range

of buses and coaches for public

transport operators and coach

companies. Its intercity buses

provide a competitive advantage

to bus operators. The vehicles’

stylish exterior attracts attention,

and passengers always remember

the comfort inside, even over long

distances. Scania Commercial

Vehicles India (SCVI) builds two

models of Coaches, 13.7 and

14.5 meters, under the Metrolink

Anil Kamat (3rd from left), MD, MG Group explains the unique features of Columbus tarmac coach to Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Road

Transport, Highways and Shipping, at Prawaas 2017.

Bus coming out of paint booth