DUSHANBE, August 16, 2016, Asia-Plus -- A new Russian-made city bus of middle class is expected to enter Tajikistan’s market soon. 

According to press release issued GAZ Group, LiAZ-4292, a low-floor city bus of middle class, which has been produced by the Likino Bus Plant (LiAZ) since 2015, will come to Tajikistan soon.

LiAZ is a bus manufacturing company located in Likino-Dulyovo, Russia.  It is now a wholly owned subsidiary of GAZ.  The enterprise specializes in designing and manufacturing buses large and extra-large class (length 10.5 m and +).

The factory was created in 1937 as a wood processing plant LOZOD (Likino Engineered Wood Test Factory).  It produced pressed wood products, as well as wood particle boards. In 1944 the factory was renamed to LiMZ (Likino Machinery Factory) and it started producing small machinery like power saws and portable generators.  In 1959 the factory started to assemble passenger buses ZIL-158. It was renamed to LiAZ the same year.  In 1967 the factory designed and manufactured the first bus model of its own named LiAZ-677.  The factory produced 194,183 buses of this model in the next 29 years.  In 1986 began production of the new model LiAZ-5256, which is now the most common model of a large bus in Russia (up to December 2013 produced more than 24,650 buses).  After the collapse of the Soviet Union, LiAZ started to experience difficulties.  In 1996 bus manufacturing ceased and the factory declared bankruptcy in 1997.  The factory has since been restructured and is known as LLC Likinskij Avtobusnyj Zavod (Likino Bus Plant).  In 2000 it became part of the RusAvtoProm Corporation, and has been part of the GAZ Group since 2005.

Recall that the Gorky Automobile Plant (GAZ), which is the leading manufacturer of commercial vehicles in Russia, participated in the international exhibition, dubbed Tajikistan-2016, which took place in Dushanbe last month.  The Russian automotive manufacturer showcased models of its vehicles at the exhibition.

The Gorky Automobile Plant (GAZ) is a Russian automotive manufacturer.  It started in 1932 as NAZ, a cooperative enterprise between Ford and the Soviet Union, as a result of a Five year plan.  GAZ is the core company of GAZ Group holding, a part of Basic Element business group.  The headquarters of GAZ Group is located in Nizhny Novgorod. Russian Machines Corporation is the controlling shareholder in OAO GAZ.  GAZ Group is the leading manufacturer of commercial vehicles in Russia. GAZ Group produces light commercial and medium-duty vehicles (GAZ), heavy-duty trucks (UralAZ), buses PAZ, KAvZ, LiAZ, GOLAZ), cars, powertrain (YaMZ and UMZ) and automotive components.  The market shares of the company: about 50% in the light commercial vehicles segment, 58% in the segment of medium-duty trucks, 42% in the all-wheel drive heavy-duty trucks segment and about 65% in the bus segment.