EAST Lancashire Coachbuilders has won a £1.7 million pound contract to help modernise transport services in one of the most densely populated cities on Earth.

The company, based on Lower Philips Road, Whitebirk, is to make 20 double decker buses for Mexico City.

And a manufacturing plant is being set up in the Mexican city of Leon, with components supplied by ELC, for the Central Americans to start building their own buses later next year.

ELC joint managing director, Philip Hilton MBE, who has just returned from Mexico City, said: "We were contacted 18 months ago by the British Embassy in Mexico and then more recently by the Mexican Ministry of Transport.

"They are trying to modernise the transport system over there because there are no bus services or operators, just 'micra buses' provided by private business owners.

"We are supplying 10 double decker buses in the first batch then 10 more later next year, when a factory will be set up in Leon under licence to East Lancashire Coachbuilders. We will then provide components for Mexicans to begin assembling their own buses."

The introduction of the double decker vehicles on a dedicated route from the heart of Mexico City, taking the Reforma Highway to Santa-Fe, is the start of a new generation of transport for the city's residents.

Further orders are being discussed for alternative vehicles to replace single deck and micra buses presently in service.

The buses are being bought by a consortium of Mexican businessmen headed by Rogelio Diaz Torres, recently voted Businessman of the Year in Mexico.

His brother Ruben Diaz Torros, Humberto Parra Snr and his son Humberto Jnr have been the driving force behind the project and have visited the UK during the past year to inspect production at ELC.

Over the past five years, ELC have found new markets in Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, Luxembourg, Seville and Cannes.