Indica deliveries up, off-the-shelf sales being considered

The Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company seems to have overcome its problems with the delivery of its Indica small cars. The company delivered its ten thousandth Indica recently, and says it is confident of meeting its target of delivery of 50,000 cars by 31 March 2000. The company's vendors have now geared up for higher production levels, which have been revised to 225 vehicles a day from the initial plan of 150 cars a day for 1999-2000.

The Telco management is now considering going one step ahead and offering at least some versions of the Indica off-the-shelf by early next year. Once the company is able to clear the backlog of 50,000 vehicle orders by end-March 2000 as projected, it may scrap the booking route altogether. There is, however, no official confirmation on this line of thinking.

The company's view is that the booking route is ideal for any start-up venture. It ensures that maximum capacity utilisation can be reached in a gradual manner, even as problem areas are handled and rectified. Now, that a high demand has been established (with the car actually commanding a handsome premium), and deliveries stepped up, the company is in a better position to offer off-the-shelf delivery of versions for which there is no delivery backlog. The plan will depend largely on how soon the backlog can be cleared.

Telco booked orders for 1,15,238 cars against full payment in the first round of booking from 17 January to 23 January 1999. It set a target of delivering 10,000 vehicles till 31 March 1999, and 50,000 vehicles till March 31, 2000. The plan assumed delivery of 60,000 vehicles in 2000-2001. The company has also retained 50,000 bookings for the second round of priority allotment.