Facing dearth of drivers for its ‘world truck’ series of heavy commercial vehicles (HCVs), Tata Motors is planning to set up a large number of driver training schools across the country.

The 25 ‘world trucks’ that it has produced and tested so far are waiting to be marketed by the company by October. Around the same time, the auto major’s training to a batch of drivers for the trucks will also be over.

Tata Motors’ ‘world truck’ range, which it calls ‘Tata Prima’, comprises multi-axle trucks, tractor-trailers (with two types of hp), tippers, mixers and special application vehicles with air-conditioned cabins for drivers. They are able to ply a gross combination weight (GCW) of 10-75 tonne and can do 50-100% more kilometers in a day than its present range of trucks.

They are mounted with engines of 280-300 horse power (hp) range compared with the 140-150 hp HCVs that the company has been producing so far, and carry a considerably higher price tag than its present range of HCV chassis, which cost between Rs 10-25 lakh.

Since the ‘world trucks’ are a different class of vehicles, those who would be driving them need to be trained.

“We will like to set up driver training schools and support state governments in many parts of the country. We have started in Punjab, and are trying to do it in UP and Maharashtra,” Tata Motors plant head SB Borwankar told fe here on Monday at the end of Singhbhum Industries Association (SIA) AGM.

According to Borwankar, the Jamshedpur unit, which is building a vendor base here and would solely produce world trucks for the time being, will bring out around 500-600 world trucks during the current year, which is expected to go up substantially to 5,000-6,000 units in 2010-11.

The company plans to slowly phase out its existing range of HCVs here as they are not Euro-III and Euro-IV emission-compatible, which come into force from 2010.

“Production of other (HCVs) will continue along with this (world truck), but they will slowly phase out because in the coming years we’re going to have Euro II, Euro IV & Euro V vehicles, which is not available in the existing models”, added Borwankar.

Tata Motors is also keen on adopting an ITI and a driver training institute in Jharkhand, provided, the basic infrastructure, including land, was provided by the state government. The company has already conveyed its intentions to the state government.

“They (the government) are to approach us (regarding adoption of an ITI), where we will provide all the support including staff, training models, sections of aggregates, etc,” said Borwankar.