Soon after bagging a contract to assemble trucks in Russia, India's biggest bus and truck maker Tata Motors on Wednesday said it has been shortlisted in a bid to supply 150,000 mini buses (taxis) to South Africa.

Tata Motors, which had bid for supplying 150,000 units of mini buses to South Africa under the 'Taxi Recapitalisation Project', had been shortlisted, company sources said.

The company has also started exporting trucks to Ukraine and has bagged orders worth $3.5 million to assemble 5,000 trucks annually in Russia.

The country's second-biggest commercial vehicle maker Ashok Leyland has also bid for the taxi project in South Africa.

Tata Motors' presence in South Africa would give a fillip to its plans to catapult itself in international markets.

The company had bid for supplying 150,000 units to South Africa, which might be increased further as and when demand picks up there, they said.

The South African government had invited bids for the supply of mini buses in that country in view of growing demand of the vehicles which will be primarily used for transport applications.

For supplying 5,000 trucks, Tata Motors has signed the deal with Russian firm S K Prom.

Initially, the company plans to assemble 400 Tata-407 and Tata-613 trucks by the end of this year.

The Russian venture comes close on the heels of Tata Motors' acquisition of the truck-making arm of failed Daewoo of Korea.

The acquisition of Daewoo Commercial Vehicle Company by Tata Motors is aimed at manufacturing top-end trucks and selling in overseas markets.

The company would also look at synergies between its Korean and Indian units.

With bagging the contract in Russia and exports to Ukraine, Tata Motors gets a major foothold in the central Asian region.

Tata Motors had already bagged a $19 million contract to supply 500 buses to Senegal.