Hafilat Industries delivers firstbus to DoT in Abu Dhabi

The UAE-based bus manufacturers Hafilat Industries has handed over its first bus to the Department of Transport (DoT) in Abu Dhabi.

Saeed Al Hameli, General Manager, Bus Office, Department of Transport, received the bus key at Hafilat's factory in the industrial city of Abu Dhabi.

The key was handed over by John Brumby, the Premier of Victoria, Australia, who attended the ceremony with Doug Trappett, Australian Ambassador to the UAE.

The company's Managing Director, Obeid Soghair bin Khedaih Al Qubaisi, said: "We are pleased to be working with the Department of Transport, and are looking forward to a continuous strong relationship between us."

Hafilat is a joint venture between Abu Dhabi-based Specialised Investment Group, Emirates Link Group and Australia's Volgren. Before November 2008, the company was a luxury bus leasing firm with clients such as Mubadala and Aldar.

In November 2008, it began assembling the buses of different manufacturers and shipped the first lot to Australia the next year, making UAE the first country in the Middle East to export locally built European buses.

The bus handed over yesterday – one in a batch of 15 – is the first full-aluminium low-floor bus to be built in the UAE. "This is our first and major deal with a local government department," said a company spokesman, adding that the company has sold six buses to Abu Dhabi Police, too.