Owing to growing economic activities and increasing disbursement of buses under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), commercial vehicle manufacturers like Tata Motors and Eicher Motors have witnessed increase in sales last month.

Though sales of Ashok Leyland have also gone up in September vis-a-vis August, the company posted lower sales compared to September 2008. It hopes demand would pick up significantly in the second half of this year. This is because Ashok Leyland would start the delivery of buses under the JNNURM programme this month.

Tata Motors, the country?s largest commercial vehicle manufacturer, registered a 10% growth in commercial vehicle sales in September. The figure stood at 31,474 units against 28,649 in September 2008. The sales figures for Eicher Motors went up 37% at 2,558 units in September this year vis-?-vis 1,867 units in September 2008.

?We have outpaced the market growth rate for the last few months. We have been working to improve the competitiveness of our products through better quality and stronger distribution network and this has helped us increase our market share across all product categories,? Somnath Bhattacharjee, executive vice-president, (sales, marketing and aftermarket), VE Commercial Vehicles, said. According to a company statement, its market share in the 5-12 tonne light and medium commercial vehicle market went up to 24% in September this year against 18% in September 2008.

Sales of Ashok Leyland declined 11.7% last month at 4,813 units compared to 5,454 units in September 2008 though its month-on-month sales went up 13.7% from 4,223 units sold in August. ?We are revising our target upwards, maybe around 5% from the previous estimates,? Rajiv Saharia, executive director, Ashok Leyland, said.

?In the past few months, the overall market has looked up and we are positive about an upswing,? he said, adding that the company expects a good second half with deliveries of 5,000 buses planned to various local and state transport bodies under JNNURM, over and above the 875 buses to Delhi Transport Corporation. While industry body Siam is yet to release its statistics, analysts expect the commercial vehicle industry to register low single digit growth in September against the 18.5% jump in total sales in August at 40,624 units.