Once the manufacturer of iconic Vijai Super scooters, the now-closed Scooters India unit on the outskirts of Uttar Pradesh’s Lucknow district is all set to move forward in a different direction as the UP government as part of its efforts to give a push to electric vehicles is going to transform the factory into a grand EV-making plant. The development has also evoked nostalgia among many people as the Vijai Super scooter used to be a prized possession in the 1970s and 1980s.
Making the project a reality, the UP government recently signed a Rs 1,500-crore memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Hinduja Group’s Ashok Leyland for the manufacturing of electric commercial buses in the state. As per the MoU, initially around 2,500 buses per annum would be manufactured, which may later be expanded to 5,000. The memorandum was signed by Manoj Kumar Singh, infrastructure and industrial development commissioner, UP, and Shenu Agarwal, managing director and CEO, Ashok Leyland.
UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath appreciated the move and said that the state government is eager to attract private-sector investments aligned with its Net Zero mission. “Mitigating emissions through cleaner public and freight transport is a vital step in this direction,” the CM stated.
End and new beginning
The pact between the UP government and Ashok Leyland eventually brought down the curtains on the nearly 50-year-long journey of Scooters India Limited (SIL). Once considered the pride of Lucknow, SIL got incorporated in 1972. The then prime minister Indira Gandhi laid the foundation stone of the company’s plant on April 8, 1973–when scooters were sold in the black market at a premium. Officials once engaged with SIL while highlighting its past. SIL had bought the plant and machinery from Italy’s Innocenti, which was manufacturing Lambretta scooters then. Scooters India Limited was conceived when Automobile Products of India (API), manufacturing Lambretta scooters in collaboration with Innocenti, decided to expand. It was going to buy the old plant of Innocenti.
How it started in 1975
“This was the time when scooters of two Italian companies, Vespa and Innocenti, were being supplied all over the world. API was a Pune-based company. It had a branch in Lucknow as well. It proposed to buy Innocenti’s old plant. A proposal for a joint venture between the API, Innocenti, and the government was eventually moved. Initially, scooters were assembled from the kits of Italy’s Innocenti under the Lambretta brand name. SIL started commercial production in 1975, manufacturing Vijai Super scooters for the Indian market and Lambretta for the overseas market,” an official said.
However, much before SIL started manufacturing scooters, it began bookings in 1974 with an advance payment of Rs 500. In 1975, the first scooter was launched with the brand name Vijai Super for the domestic and Lambretta for the export market. The scooter was named ‘Vijai’ after India’s victory in the 1971 war. In 1980, SIL hit its peak and sold over 30,000 scooters. Interestingly, in 1983, SIL gifted the iconic Vijay Super scooter to each member of the world cup-winning cricket team.
Downward spiral
However, its decline began in 1997, after its sales started going down due to the licence permit system, increased competition, and failure to bring in new technology. This resulted in the closure of the two-wheeler production in 1997. Then in 2018, the Government of India invited expressions of interest for selling its entire stake in SIL, but no one came forward. In 2021, the government finally approved the closure of the company and transferred the land to UP State Industrial Development Authority.
“Memories of Vijai Super are still fresh in my mind. Those were the days when Vijay Super used to be the only lifeline and it used to be the only prized possession for the Indians in the 1970s and 80s,” said Yash Kohli, a trader from Lucknow and a proud owner of a Vijai Super scooter.
While the manufacturing unit would be replaced with an EV plant, Kohli said Vijai Super will remain alive in people’s memories.
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