What
were Ministers and Secretaries of State Transport Departments doing in Hanover,
the largest city of Germany, in the last week of September 2016? They all were
participants at the transport fair by the International Association of
Automotive Industry (IAA). This is one of the biggest fairs in the world
for sellers and buyers of big buses, trucks and all modern automotive road
transport vehicles. India has approximately 1.75 crore private and public
transport buses. Volvo, MAN and Daimler are the only foreign companies which
have started manufacturing buses in India. The government plans to convert
about 1.5 lakh diesel buses run
by state transport corporations into electric buses to cut down on the huge Rs
8 lakh crore crude import bill and check pollution. Naturally,
the IAA fair is the best place to see the finest and latest buses for public
transport system. gfiles representative attended the IAA fair and
interacted with many ministers, secretaries who were baffled to see an
automobile fair of such scale. Our reporter told us that big companies’ CEOs
were seen anxious to meet the senior secretaries. India has to manufacture or
import approximately five lakh buses by 2032 as per the plan submitted to the
Planning Commission by a committee of senior secretaries on transport. A good
quality bus costs Rs 85 lakh at the least. A senior secretary was heard
saying, “What a pity, India can’t make a good quality bus and we are talking
about Make in India”.
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