Chennai based commercial vehicle manufacturing company Ashok Leyland Ltd has increased the prices of its medium and heavy duty vehicles by 3% with immediate effect.

The increase in cost will be in the range of Rs 20,000-Rs 50,000 depending on the model.

The company stated that the price rise had been necessitated to recover the increase in input costs like steel, tyres, castings and others.

Ashok Leyland, the country's second biggest truck manufacturer, has recorded an over three-fold jump in commercial vehicle sales, which stood at 6,502 units during the last month (May 2010) as against 1,977 in May 2009.

The company's domestic sales remained at 5,973 units in the last month as compared to 1,697 units in the same month of 2009.

Exports came up by around two-fold to 529 units in May as against 280 units in the year-ago period.

Ashok Leyland reported an over three-fold increase in total domestic sales of medium and heavy commercial vehicles at 5,890 units, from 1,643 units in May 2009. (With Inputs from Agencies)