State owned Lakdiva Engineering Ltd. endash repair and re-conditioning arm for state buses, is to be put up for private investment, as part of the re-haul of the Central Transport Board.
Lakdiva Engineering is entirely state owned, and currently operates a factory that repairs and re-conditions bus bodies belonging to the state owned Bus Companies. rn
rnThere are about 4,500 buses operated by 11 state owned bus companies on the roads today, with a further 15,000 buses operated by the private sector.rn
rnBut the Lakdiva Factory is under-utilised, with traffic of 10 to 20 buses a month. There is also idle capacity to assemble buses.
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rnBuilt in 1970, the factory was set up initially to meet a requirement for newly built bus bodies, with the bus chassis imported from India, Italy and Japan and all body parts designed at the local factory.rn
rnOutput capacity was 100 buses a month, with infrastructure facilities still in place.rn
rnldblquote We have all the infrastructure facilities, skille