Even as the volume of heavy civil works is soaring across the country, new technology is being inducted into the machines that tackle earth, rocks, water, soil and forests, to ensure the exacting standards demanded by public spaces. Large expenditure on putting in place the infrastructure is the main driver of growth of the construction equipment in the country. India is expected to invest $650 billion in urban infrastructure alone over the next two decades.
Besides this, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation has launched 352 affordable housing projects worth Rs. 38,000 crore across 53 major cities for construction of over two lakh homes.
The Indian construction industry, emerging from a sluggish four-year period, is expected to grow to $5 billion by fiscal 2019-20 from the current $ 3 billion. FDI received in construction development sector, mainly townships, housing built-up infrastructure and construction development projects in the first 16 years of the new millennium stood at $24 billion, if the statistics of the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) are any indication. Not alone this, India is emerging as the regional hub for MNCs manufacturing heavy construction machines such as excavators, backhoe loaders, tracked excavators, wheeled loading shovels, compactors, telehandlers, skid steer loaders and diesel generators.
Backhoe loaders
Twenty seven major manufacturers of these heavy equipment have set up their bases in India to date. JCB, the largest among the manufacturers of backhoe loaders, a versatile machine used in construction, which set up its first plant in 1979, has now five plants in NCR, Pune and Jaipur. According to Vipin Sondhi, MD & CEO of JCB India, the company earns 20% of its revenue from exports to around 85 countries in South-East Asia, Middle East and Africa.
JCB India which showcased its Backhoe Loaders inter alia at the 9th edition of EXCON-2017 in Bengaluru earlier this week, had 30 new features, five of them being the world’s first including the Automated Manual Transmission (ATM) called Easy Shift. Sondhi says digitisation and other ease-of-use features were part of the constant induction of innovation.
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