MG Bus & Coach: The Edifice of Power, Planning & Prowess

If there is one thing that commercial vehicle bigwigs like Mahindra, Ashok Leyland, VECV, Tata Motors and MAN have in common, it’s their partner of choice when it comes to body building – MG Bus & Coach. Let’s take a deep look at what makes MG Bus & Coach what it is today – India’s largest privately-owned bus body building company.

India is moving ahead with giant strides and facilitating this mobility are its buses. As the prime mode of mass mobility in the country, the bus industry in India has been subjected to rapid development in the recent years. Entry of global OEM majors, stringent bus body codes, rapidly emerging new players, increasing consumer awareness, expectations and aspirations, etc., have culminated to impel this industry to the cusp of a revolution.

MG Bus & Coach, India’s largest privately-owned bus body-building company, aims to be the torchbearers of this revolution. 

“The industry today is bustling with activity and the coming years will witness huge demand in mass transportation solutions. We want to build our singularly and niche in this industry with a challenging variety of product mix for diverse applications,” says Anil Kamat, Managing Director, MG Bus & Coach, who currently propels the group’s passion for meeting consumers’ three-fold needs of Complete Commitment, Detail-Driven Concepts, and Quality Output. 

Started by a committed, first generation entrepreneur Mohan V Kamat in 1980, the MG Group’s business interest presently pans across a slew of industries from Transportation, Alternate Energy to Health Care, but what makes it a household name in India is its seminal work in the bus coach building industry. The company started operations in 1996 and today, it is the biggest name in the bus body building sector in India. 

Let’s have a look at why the company is the first Indian choice for OEM partners around the world looking for collaboration with Indian bus builders. 

Backward Integration – An Edge

MG Bus & Coach’s focus on backward integration has led it to create several specialist companies to buttress its bus building endeavors – from design and engineering to composites and bus electronics.

West & Deccan is a full-fledged design house providing end to end design and designing services for new bus development. It houses a strong team of 55 designers, engineers, integrators, analysts and stylists, working with the latest design, analytical and design softwares to provide a plethora of services including bus styling, CAD, 3D modelling, FEA Structural Analysis, Roll Over Stimulation, CAE, Homologation and production tooling designs. The result is an end product that feature reduced body weight, optimized strength and better performance specific to Indian road conditions. Above all, these services allow the bus customer to have the shortest ‘concept to market’ cycle for any bus type.

West & Deccan, has recently develop the highly innovative E3 electric three-wheeler with Greaves Cotton, the country’s largest supplier of three-wheeler engines, at the Auto Expo – Motor Show 2018. The E3 is a concept vehicle for last mile connectivity for passenger travel, comes with a powerful electric drivetrain and promises to deliver completely emission-free and noiseless operation.

MG Composites, the MG Group’s engineered composites company, is built up 6,000 sq. meters and has a production capacity of 3,000 tones PA. The company has a panel of international experts as its international partners, and uses state- of-the-art vacuum infusion technology for optimized composite part production with lighter weight, better finish and strength at the most competitive cost.

MG Grey Engine is a specialized company producing a variety of bus electronic products including bus wiring harnesses, led lights, public address systems and MG's patented, automotive compliant, back lit destination boards. The company designs all products to customer specifications, and in accordance to with automotive compliant standards.

Alcom Products is involved in the design and development of bus seating systems. Banking on cutting edge technology in metal working, foam cutting, upholstery stitching and powder coating, the company shells out quality seating systems including non-reclining seats for school bus, mid-range seats for staff and tourist buses, reclining seating systems for the premium coaches, etc. 

The synergy within the company flows into every bus manufactured in its plans – an aspect unique to MG Bus & Coach. 

Bus Building Facility

Recently, MG Bus & Coach have achieved the milestone of producing 110, 000 buses backed by its two sound production units in Zahirabad, Telangana and Belgaum, Karnataka. With a combined plant capacity of 16,500 buses per annum, the large, well equipped units are even armed with modern plasma and laser cutting machines along with IS 11865:2006 compliant shower testing facilities. The Belgaum plant, earlier called Alma Motors Pvt. Ltd., and now MG Bus & Coach Pvt. Ltd., will be dedicated to premium bus and coach manufacturing, mostly for European clientele and the Indian customers interested in the luxury segment.

The company is also backed by a fervent team of human resource. “We have a young, dynamic and aggressive team that is highly competent and aligned with our goals. We want to strengthen this team further, especially in the engineering space, with different skill-sets, in order to achieve our aim of being the largest bus building company in India,” says Anil M Kamat.

The company is also vying to initiate a first of its kind, separate track for test run of the finished coaches. “This field test will ascertain the quality post coach building and we are hoping that it will be our main USP in the premium bus and coach industry,” Kamat said.

Trusted Supplier to Leading OEMs

As the largest bus building company in India, MG Bus & Coach is naturally the first choice for OEM partners across the world. The company is associated with a long list of OEM clients - Mahindra and Mahindra, Ashok Leyland, Volvo Eicher Commercial Vehicles, Tata Motors and MAN.

The latest addition to this list is Swedish commercial vehicles behemoth Scania, who signed a pact with the MG Bus & Coach in 2017. “It gives me immense please to let you know that from now, we will be designing, special application buses and coaches for Scania, for which the IPRs will be owned by us. The entire product design is purely in MG’s scope and we are going to come up with revolutionary products for Scania,” Anil M Kamat was quoted saying. 

A Show Stopper Always

MG Bus and Coach has consecutively been the show stopper at Busworld India, the biggest B2B bus and coach exhibition in the country. On the 2015 edition of Bus World, the company stole the show with its first-ever luxury premium coach, the flagship Mammoth, built on the MAN CLA 16.22 chassis. The model is exported to markets in Africa, Bangladesh, Maldives and Nepal.

On the 2016 edition, MG Bus & Coach took the center stage again with the Columbus and a stunning sleeper version of the Mammoth. The Columbus is a first-of-its-kind monocoque, ultra-low flat-floor tarmac coach developed currently for international markets. The coach features reliable drive line aggregates like ZF and Cummins, a passenger entry floor height at as low as 290 mm (after kneeling) and can accommodate up to 70 passengers (8 seated and 62 standees). Equipped with the latest technologies such as ECAS, ABS, & CAN bus systems, the coach is fully complied with Airport Handling Manual regulations. Columbus has also helped the MG Bus & Coach elevate itself as an OEM.

(Also read MG Group Launches Volvo Sleeper Starz)

In the latest edition of Busworld India, held last year, the group showcased 3 new models – DreamZ, Glider and GliderZ. DreamZ is a sleeper coach based on the Mercedes Benz OH 2441 Multi-Axle chassis, offered through Daimler India Commercial Vehicles (DICV) dealer Autobahn and built as per AIS-119 regulations. The premium segment coach has 40 luxurious berths with very classy interior ambience, premium fittings and LED lighting.

The mid-premium ‘value’ coach segment GliderZ is a sleeper coach based on the Bharat Benz 16T bus chassis. The seater iteration is called Glider. 

Clientel

A slew of characteristics native to the group like on-time delivery, passenger safety and focus on quality through cutting-edge technology has righteously been recognized over the years by leading OEMs, dealers, fleet operators, institutions, schools, colleges, NGO’s, etc. 

MG (Buses & Coaches) also enjoys the patronage of State Transport Undertakings of Telangana, Maharastra, Andhra Pradesh, Goa and very recently State Express Transport Corporation (SETC), Tamil Nadu. In addition to the above, the Group also undertakes Bus Building for STUs in Kerala, West Bengal, Gujarat, etc., through Ashok Leyland under the JNNURM Scheme.

MG Bus & Coach directly exports to SAARC countries and Africa and does deemed exports with OE partners, like Ashok Leyland, Mahindra, and Eicher, to more than 20 countries. “We have manufactured more than 10,000 vehicles for our OEM partners for export markets,” says Anil M Kamat.

The article originally appeared in Bus Coach India magazine, February 2019.