Chennai, Jan 4 (IANS): Hoping to sell around one million two-wheelers by 2015, India Yamaha Motor Pvt Ltd expects its scooters to contribute a major share in that, a senior company official said Friday.

"Nearly 40 percent of the one million units will be from two-wheelers. The scooter segment is growing at around 20 percent per annum while the two-wheeler segment is growing at 11 percent," Roy Kurian, national business head - sales, told reporters here.

Kurian said the company's upcoming 1.5 million unit Tamil Nadu plant at an outlay of around Rs.1,500 crore would initially roll out scooters. The plant is expected to begin operations in 2014 and will also cater to Japanese company Yamaha's overseas markets.

India Yamaha Motor entered the scooter segment with its Ray model last September and has sold around 35,000 units till date, Kurian said.

For the current year, India Yamaha Motor is targeting to sell around 500,000 units this year out of which a substantial portion will be accounted by scooters, he said.

According to Masaki Asano, deputy managing director, the company will be focusing on the southern markets for its scooters.

Targeting the women's segment for its scooters, India Yamaha Motor launched the country's first Yamaha female riding training programme here.

According to the company, public transport facilities are bad for women in most parts of India. Women find it very difficult to use whatever little transport is available due to harassment on buses and other public transport.

India Yamaha Motor will focus on students of 11th and 12th standards in the training programme.