Elevators and escalators: Opportunities in railways and airports

Manish Mehan
CEO & MD, TK Elevator India

The elevator and escalator market in India is expected to grow by $522.84 million during 2021-25, progressing at the rate of 9%. This is propelled by the growing number of metro and airport projects and high economic growth. Infrastructure growth in India is expected at a CAGR of approximately 7% as the government is projected to invest about Rs 102 lakh crore in infrastructure projects by 2024-2025.

India has been witnessing a rapid increase in investments in large-scale metro projects, especially in tier-1 and tier-2 cities, to support the transportation and development needs of India as cities urbanize.

Over the past decade, new metro rail lines have been added in areas near Delhi. Similarly, metro rail projects have been introduced in other Indian cities such as Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai and Pune, with further plans to enhance connectivity in the future.

Furthermore, India aims to build new airports to cater to the needs of increasing domestic and international air traffic. The rise in number of airports is expected to go up from 153 in 2020 to around 200 by 2040. Promoting India's Smart Cities Mission, these advancements in the field of infrastructure and technology with their integration will bring India one step closer to becoming an advanced aviation hub in the region.

These developments have accelerated demand for smart and efficient escalator and elevator systems in India resulting in new opportunities for leading manufacturers. With the latest mobility solutions, the development of elevators and escalators has become much more efficient. Smart elevators such as IoT-based elevators can monitor performance, offer real-time maintenance recommendations, provide updated status, advance reporting, control, and monitor the elevator remotely. For instance, TK Elevator's MAX is a game-changing predictive and pre-emptive maintenance solution that extends remote monitoring capabilities to dramatically increase current availability levels of existing and new elevators. Utilizing the power of Internet of Things (IoT) and Microsoft's Azure cloud computing technology, MAX predicts maintenance issues before they occur, and empowers elevator engineers by flagging the need to replace components and systems before the end of their lifecycle.

Sustainability is often a key factor for project owners when choosing between mobility solutions. Leading and more innovative players in the market have more comprehensive and innovative solutions in place to satisfy these requirements, and would be able to better capture these opportunities.

Elevators, escalators and moving walks from TK Elevator have a significant presence in international and domestic airports across the globe, also supporting some of the top airports in Asia Pacific and the Middle East including the Qatar Hamad International Airport, Singapore Changi and Hong Kong International Airport.

With a more positive outlook on tourism over the next few years, more subway and railway network expansion in the pipeline, and new transportation infrastructure being continuously built across India, we see enormous opportunities for leading manufacturers of elevators, escalators and moving walks.

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