India’s road network is very huge and comprises of national highways, expressways, state highways, major district roads, other district roads and village roads. If numbers are to be believed, then the market for roads and highways is projected to exhibit a CAGR of 36.16 per cent during 2016-2025. This clearly portrays the fact that in future, the already vast road network in the country will expand further. Well, it is a good sign of growth but here comes the worry about making India’s growing network of roads safer and sound.

In order to ensure that the roads remain safer in the longer run, it is necessary to ensure that quality roads are built and this can be made possible only through employing technologically sound road Construction Equipment (CE). However, it is generally seen that in order to the curtail the prices of the road CE, contractors or construction company owners take an easy approach towards safety and quality parameters by employing outdated machines. This thinking needs to be changed. The contractors as well as construction company owners need to understand that better quality equipment give extra output from the same equipment than those without such features.

Motor grader’s role in making roads safe

Typically equipment like motor graders, backhoe loaders, vibratory compactors among few others are important equipment used in the construction of roads. If we talk about motor graders in particular, then they are highly versatile and used to make land surface smooth and produce fine grades. They are even used to set the native soil foundation pads, move unearthed soil and debris, mix materials and completely remove a layer of soil and then spread a new layer at that particular point to produce even surfaces. Overall, motor graders improve productivity and efficiency at the jobsite.

Over the years, motor graders have highly improved and become technologically advanced. They come loaded with features that can improve the road construction process and improve the quality of roads, thereby, making them safe.

Given the fact that India is increasingly laying focus on rural as well as urban roads, there is need for technologically advanced motor graders that can be best suited for the Indian scenario. While there are many motor graders available in the market but most of them are manufactured by international companies and they are large and very expensive and this puts a restriction on their usage in the Indian scenario. There is no doubt that these machines are excellent in terms of technology employed but they are not made for construction of narrow roads in rural as well as some urban areas of the country. Here comes into picture the indigenous motor grader manufacturer—Mahindra Construction Equipment’s (MCE) offering and technologically-sound RoadMaster G90. It is best solution for Indian roads including small and medium roads, state highways and national highway expansion projects. RoadMaster G90 is loaded with features that can ensure quality and safe road construction.

Mahindra RoadMaster G90: Making India’s roads safer

Here is a look at the technologically advanced RoadMaster G90’s features which can help in making India’s roads safer...

1. Machine control technology: Generally, road construction is very labour-intensive and time-consuming task combined with sub-optimal methods and unsuitable machinery. This leads to poor quality roads with a very short lifespan, resulting in added expenses for maintaining the road and re-doing them over and over again. However, equipped with advanced technology, RoadMaster G90 can reach the final grade much faster with more accuracy, thus, saving time and cost associated with rework tasks. This also increases the productivity at the construction site and jobsite safety. Further, being able to maintain consistent grade is one of the most difficult tasks for the motor grader operators. However, RoadMaster G90 with its advanced machine controls can make this task much easier.

2. GPRS-based remote monitoring system: RoadMaster G90 comes with GPRS-based remote monitoring system DigiSense that can keep a track of your machine with the touch of a finger. Through this, be it business information like daily work reports, fuel level or warnings like low fuel, filter clogging and low engine oil, you can get constant updates on your equipment through SMS. This can make equipment maintenance easy. Thus, when the equipment remains in good condition, it is sure to make good and quality roads.

3. Advanced joystick controls: RoadMaster G90 possesses ergonomic layout and seating with all the controls smooth and easy to reach and has spacious canopy, lockable storage and mobile charging. The equipment boosts safety, efficiency and productivity at all times with advanced control joysticks. Operators can easily shift steer, adjust blade, articulate, control hydraulics and access automated grading systems without taking their hands off the controls. When the operators are able to handle the equipment with ease and their fatigue is reduced, then this also helps in improving the road construction process and result in quality roads that require minimum maintenance.

4. Other features:

a) RoadMaster G90 is powered by a 91 HP DiTEC engine (developed by Mahindra) and coupled with a 3 m wide blade.

b) The 3000 mm moldboard of RoadMaster G90 comes with an option of having its size reduced by 400 mm. Depending on the requirement, the blade size can be reduced by 200 mm on both sides.

c) Its mouldboard is designed to suit required productivity and durability.

d) The equipment offers full blade visibility from operator station for superior grade finish.

e) RoadMaster G90 comes with advance active hydraulics centre pin dampening for precise finish in lesser passes.

f) The equipment is optimised to deliver zero compromise grading at 40 per cent cost as compared to conventional motor graders.

g) RoadMaster G90 is a substantially faster machine loaded with features and technology that lead to greater productivity than the others. In fact, as compared to conventional motor graders, RoadMaster G90 is much more productive. Thus, optimal productivity allows on-time project completion leading to high revenue.

h) RoadMaster G90 comes with the option of having additional fitments i.e., ripper and dozer for added versatility.

The above features also ensure that RoadMaster G90 makes Indian roads safe.

To sum up

Making roads safer is one of the prime concerns today. For that, road safety should be made an in-built feature of design and construction of road, not only for national and state highways but also for rural roads. This makes using technologically advanced equipment like motor graders extremely important. So, if you are looking to buy advanced motor graders that are best suited for Indian roads, then RoadMaster G90 should be definitely considered which offers affordable, un-compromised and mechanised grading solution.