BENGALURU (Reuters) -Online travel agency Easy Trip Planners said on Thursday it will invest 2 billion rupees ($23.8 million) to manufacture electric buses in India, sending its shares up as much as 14%.
The investment will be made over two to three years for the setting up a manufacturing plant, research and product development, the company, which operates the website EaseMyTrip.com, said.
The company plans to make 4,000 to 5,000 buses over the next two to three years.
Easy Trip Planners is one of India’s top online travel aggregators, offering airline, train and bus tickets as well as hotel reservations.
It competes with MakeMyTrip and Yatra Online within India.
Easy Trip’s largest business is air travel, which accounted for roughly 95% of its first-quarter revenue. Hotel bookings made up more than 4%.
“This move aligns with our growth plans to expand the non-air business and will help us establish a strong foothold in the growing EV and eMobility sector,” said Rikant Pittie, EaseMyTrip’s co-founder.
The electric buses will be used by inter-city bus ticket-platform YoloBus.
Easy Trip’s stock was last trading up 11%, on track for its best day since Jan. 11, and set for its second-best day this year.
($1 = 83.9560 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Varun Hebbalalu in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)
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