M&M's income from operations was up by 12.74 per cent to Rs 1,059.37 crore during April-June 1999 as it improved its market share in the first quarter. ``The company has outperformed the utility vehicles and tractor industries during this quarter,'' the company said in a statement.

Speaking at the 53rd annual general meeting of the company, Chairman Keshub Mahindra said Project Scorpio, the new generation utility vehicle from Mahindra & Mahindra, will be available in many variants and augment the company's product portfolio. ``Work on the project is progressing on schedule and the utility vehicle will hit the roads by 2001. The company is investing around Rs 600 crore on developing Project Scorpio, which will be positioned to take on top-of-the-line utilityvehicles like Kijang from Toyota,'' he said.

Utility vehicles sales in the domestic market rose to 15,581 units from 14,132 in the same period last year despite a three per cent setback for the industry, it said.

``The company... improved its market share in the utility vehicle segment to 62.7 per cent from 55.1 per cent in the corresponding period last year,'' it said. The firm said it improved its market share in tractors to 29.7 per cent from 27.7 per cent. Sales rose 14.7 per cent to 19,661 tractors in the first quarter from 17,138, it said.

Sales of light commercial vehicles rose 38 per cent to 1,464 units from 1,061, it said. Production of vehicles rose 14 per cent to 17,944 units in the three months ended June 30 from 15,776 while tractor output rose 61 per cent to 18,503 from 11,494, it added.

According to Mahindra, the company's battery-charged ten-seater Bijlee will be launched next month and cater to the urban customer. The company is looking at launching a diesel version as well for therural market.

M&M is readying to offer its products through the internet. As a first step, the company will be hawking a variant of the jeep - the young peoples' model - through the internet.