ETL, part of the Rs 1,000 crore Eicher group and a market leader in the small tractor segment, would produce the new models at its Bhopal plant, managing director, Eicher Tractors, RC Jain said here.

The technology for these models would be provided by Valtra and engines would be produced at ETL's Alwar plant, Jain said adding that the products would have several advanced features including modern gear box, power steering, dual clutch system and front power take off (FPTO) system.

"Currently field testing of the two models is going on and after getting more feedback from the test report, suitable changes according to Indian conditions will be made," he said.

Indian tractor market is traditionally dominated by small tractors mainly in the category between24hp to 42hp, as the average farm size in the country is very small.

Now several players such as New Holland and International Tractors are entering into the powerful tractors segment as they feel there is a good potential for these kind of models.

Eicher is currently producing four small tractor models with 24, 30, 35 and 42hp engines and holds a market share of about 34 per cent, Jain claimed.

Other leading players such as Mahindra and Mahindra has a market share of 30.8 per cent in the small tractor segment followed by Escorts Ltd (13.2 per cent), HMT (9.8 per cent) and others (12.5 per cent), he said.

The 50hp tractor of ETL would be priced in the range of Rs 3 lakh to Rs 3.5 lakh while the 60hp model would attract a price between Rs 4 lakh to Rs 5 lakh, Jain said.

The company has invested over Rs 70 crore in the project and targeted to indigenise 95 per cent of the components by the year 2000.

ETL recorded a sales growth of over 4.4 per cent during the just ended fiscal year as against theindustry growth of 3.4 per cent, Jain said.

It sold 18,700 units of 24hp model, 1200 tractors of 30hp model and 5,500 of 35hp category during 1998-99 as compared to 17,000, 700 and 6,000 units sold respectively in the previous year.

The Faridaband plant of the company has a capacity of producing 30,000 tractors per month and the newly constructed Bhopal plant has the capacity of manufacturing 12,000 units annually which could be further extended according to the needs, Jain said.