Benelli, the century-old Italian super bike maker, is making another foray into the Indian market after its partnership with DSK Group came to an end last year.

This time Benelli has inked a strategic partnership with Adishwar Auto Ride India (AARI), part of Mahavir Group, which operates in the auto segment with a number of dealerships of various manufacturers.

AARI will now market Benelli’s products in the country. It is setting up a CKD assembly plant in Hyderabad.

“We have a distribution agreement with Benelli and have exclusive rights to assemble Benelli products in our new plant in Hyderabad which will be ready by October 2018,” said Vikas Jhabakh, director of Mahavir Group.

Benelli had stopped selling in the Indian market since February 2018 after DSK Group ran into financial trouble and the partnership had to be terminated.

The Italian bike maker was selling seven models in India, including the TNT 25 (a 250cc bike priced at Rs 2 lakh), the TNT 300 (300cc bike priced at Rs 3 lakh) and the 302, (a 300cc “fairing” model priced at Rs 3.5 lakh).

It also sold 600cc bikes , including the 600i and the 600 GT, which is a touring bike. The other bikes were 899 and 1130, which were the 900cc and 1100cc bikes, respectively.

The company sold 5,400 bikes over three years from 2015 to 2017.

Under the new partnership, the TNT 300, the 302 and the 600i will continue to sell, said Jhabakh.

In addition, Benelli will bring two new 250cc bikes in 2019 along with the cruiser bikes in the 500cc segment.

The partnership aims to sell 3,000 bikes in 2019 and 4,000 units in the subsequent year.

“We will be launching 8-10 models in the next two years,” said the director.

There will be facelifts of the TNT 300 and the 600i.

In the fairing family of bikes, Benelli will bring in the 302. In the TRK family, there will be an adventure bike with a 500cc engine.

By early 2020, Benelli will offer the 250cc TRK on-road and offroad bikes.

The company is designing an India-specific product, called Imperiale, which will have 400cc and 500cc engines and are supposed to come to the country in the first quarter of 2020.

There will be 20 sales touchpoints in 2019 and bikes will start rolling out of the factory from November.

In the Leoncino family, there will be scrambler bikes of 500cc and 250cc capacity, both onroad and offroad.