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MoAZ rolls out prototype model of underground bus

The Mogilev Automobile Plant named after Kirov has assembled a prototype model of an underground bus able to carry 17 people, the company’s deputy chief designer Valery Peklin told BelTA. The bus is supposed to deliver miners through narrow tunnels, travelling up to 10 km at 35 km/h. The bus is powered by a German engine and uses foreign-made hydraulics. With matching technical parameters, the new bus beats competitors by a lower price. “This is why we hope the novelty will be competitive on the international market,” remarked the source. After preliminary in-company tests in April the bus will be shipped for trials to the customer — a mine in Kazakhstan. The Mogilev Automobile Plant named after Kirov is the CIS’ and near-abroad’s largest producer of automobiles designed for building roads, dams, for quarry operation, underground mining, building tunnels and bridges. The company offers dump trucks, motor scrapers, underground road-trains and special vehicles for mines, bulldozers, loaders, mixer trucks, garbage removal truck for municipal companies, electric trucks and other road construction machines. The company exports more than half of the make. Last year the company’s industrial output in comparable prices amounted to Br94 billion, 20% up on 2006. The export more than doubled to reach $22.2 million, with the consumer goods output up by 16% to Br1.8 billion. The company was founded in 1935. Now it employs over 2,000 people.