Rootes to Assemble in Rhodesia
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r0'.VIMER and Karrier vehicles from ‘..." 15 cwt.-10 tons will be assembled at a new Rootes plant opened at Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia, last week.Specialized bodies to meet local requirements will be built in conjunction with local concerns.
The new plant, which covers an area of 46,000 sq. ft. and cost over £100.000 to build, will serve the whole of Central Africa. It will be staffed by personnel from Britain and Rhodesia. and operated by Rootes' recently farmed subsidiary, Rootes (C.A.) (Pvt.), Ltd., who have already reorganized and expanded the sales network.
Special equipment has been shipped from Britain to make the service,departmeat among the most modern in Africa. It will cater for the full range of Rootes vehicles and operate day and night for commercial users.
The parts depot, which has been designed to carry stocks to the value of .000,000, will also operate around the clock, and a technical training school has been established to instruct local mechanics.
GOVERNMENT TO SUBSIDIZE BIRMINGHAM UNDERPASS
THE Government have promised a grant of £585,000 to Birmingham Corporation towards the estimated cost£967,500--of constructing an underpass to carry Birchfield Road (A34) under the outer ring road. This was announced by Mr. Ernest Marples, Minister of Transport, in Birmingham, last week.
The present junction forms one of the worst traffic bottlenecks on the main radial road from the City centre to Walsall and the north-east.
The scheme provides for carriageway heating in the underpass to prevent the formation of ice.
TESTING DIFFICULTIES OVER "SHORTLY," SAY M.o.T.
IT is hoped that the legal difficulties holding up the introduction of compulsory tests of vehicles more than 10 years old will be overcome shortly, a Ministry of Transport spokesman told The Commercial Motor on Monday.
There is some doubt as to whether tests would be legal in the light of the relevant wording in the Road Traffic Act, 1956. They were to have started in 1958, and last November Mr. Ernest Marples, Minister of Transport, said that he intended to begin the scheme on a voluntary basis no later than by February this year.
Many garages have applied for appointment as official examiners.
LIGHT-VEHICLE CHECKS
A RRANGEMENTS are being made at r I the new West Midland branch premises of Transport Equipment (Thornyeroft), Ltd.. at 76 High Street, West Bromwich, for the inspection of cars and light commercial vehicles under the Government's scheme which is soon to he introduced.