Need of Advanced Machines for Road Building Sector
If numbers are any truth, then it is estimated that US$ 650 billion investment will be required for urban infrastructure in India over the next 20 years and of this, almost 45 per cent will be required for the development of urban roads. Quite encouraging! Isn’t it?
As per the market analysts, the value of total roads and bridges infrastructure in India will grow at a CAGR of 17.4 per cent over FY12-17. Further, it is believed that factors such as National Highway expansion program of 4-lane to 6-lane by NHAI, State Highways development programs, rural roads development programs etc., will open new arenas for the road construction machinery market. Thus, obviously the road construction machinery manufactures in India need to gear up well to cater to this growing demand.
Types of road construction equipment
The following are some commonly used road construction equipment:
- Forklift trucks: They are powerful equipment with an attached prolonged platform that can be lowered to pick an object on or below the ground and raised to move the object.
- Wheel loaders: They are like tractors used to move a pile of material from the ground and load it onto a dump truck or into an open pit.
- Crawler excavators: Also known as diggers, they are used for excavating earth and rock and loading them onto dump trucks.
- Backhoe loaders: They have a front bucket that allows them to work as a wheel loader and an excavator-style digging mechanism at the back.
- It is often seen that in order to curtail the prices of the road construction equipment, Indian manufacturers take an easy approach towards safety and quality parameters. Hence, for future, they will have to understand that better quality equipment gives extra output from the same equipment than those without such features.
- With growing awareness, customers are demanding world-class technology, thus, road construction machinery manufacturers need to come up with innovative solutions to meet customer expectations.
- Last but not the least, Indian companies need to form joint ventures with the global manufacturers and give the right technology to Indian customers.
While these machines cater to most of the demand from road building sector, yet there is demand for upgradation and demand for new ones.
Need for advanced machines
With the country ambitiously planning to lay increasing number of new roads and retouch the old ones to match the projected economic growth, new doors of opportunity have opened for road construction machinery manufacturers. However, the questions that gains ground here is that is the nation equipped technologically to take up so many road projects?
Well, market analysts sound positive in response to this question and claim that India is already manufacturing a variety of road construction equipment (indigenous as well as in collaboration with global manufacturers). However, they feel that there is still the need to invest in advanced machines to build world-class roads. And yes they are right! Indian road construction equipment manufacturers need to adopt new technologies so as to give better results in terms of accuracy, quality and cost of construction.
Strategies that can be undertaken
Overall, road construction machinery manufacturers in India need to gear up well with advanced machines to meet the growing demand of the road building sector.
