Ashok Leyland to invest Rs 1,000 cr to build its first facility in Uttar Pradesh

Ashok Leyland, the flagship company of the Hinduja Group, said that it will invest Rs 1,000 crore in Uttar Pradesh to establish a bus manufacturing facility with a clean mobility focus. The commercial vehicle giant announced in a statement that the firm has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Uttar Pradesh government to establish the factory, the company's first in the state.

The corporation will establish a fully integrated commercial vehicle bus plant close to Lucknow that focuses on green mobility. According to Ashok Leyland MD & CEO Shenu Agarwal, the company plans to invest up to Rs 1,000 crore in this new plant over the next years, depending on market adoption and demand for alternative fuel vehicles in the state. One of the factors that led to the establishment of the plant in Uttar Pradesh was the company's goal of reaching net zero by 2048.

The factory's initial production capacity will be 2,500 buses annually when it begins operations, the company claimed. The demand for electric and other types of buses is anticipated to increase significantly over the next few years, thus the company plans to gradually increase this capacity over the next ten years to handle up to 5,000 cars annually.

Once operational, this would be Ashok Leyland's sixth automobile plant in the nation. Dheeraj Hinduja, chairman of Ashok Leyland, stated that the signing of this MoU "reaffirms our commitment to shaping the future of the commercial vehicle industry". After Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland is the second-largest producer of commercial vehicles in the nation.