It is the time to expedite the financial closures for new projects.
GOI need to front end the infrastructure investments to instigate the private investments & attracting foreign capital. Ajay Mandahr, CEO, Escorts CE What is your take on rebooting the activities in the road sector on a war footing? The recent announcements by FM & RBI have been very positive and have addressed the challenges related
GOI need to front end the infrastructure investments to instigate the private investments & attracting foreign capital.
Ajay Mandahr, CEO, Escorts CE
What is your take on rebooting the activities in the road sector on a war footing?
The recent announcements by FM & RBI have been very positive and have addressed the challenges related to liquidity improvements. The land, labour, liquidity & laws stimulus / reforms announced by GOI is expected to help the industry, MSME and the labourers (& migrant workers) in both organized and unorganized sector. Emphasis on self-reliant India would surely go a long way in building a strong supply chain.
This stimulus will surely help the supply side and help respond to current economic challenges resulting from C-19. The next stages i.e. recover and grow, would surely need to stimulate the demand side and I feel, this can be majorly achieved through the investments in infrastructure. GOI need to front end the infrastructure investments to instigate the private investments and attracting foreign capital. To seriously becoming a strong contender and provide an alternative supply chain possibilities to the international companies, we need to provide workable infrastructure besides the ease of doing business.
Infrastructure investments will also help in creating employment opportunities for the migrant labours and will support in propping the economy.
How do you assess the initiatives from the government / NHAI specifically to reboot the activities in the road sector?
Globally, economies have grown by leveraging infrastructure sector spending. NHAI has been one of the strongest growth engines for India in last 5-6 years. To realize our objective of US$ 5 trillion by 2025, India needs to spend about Rs.20 trillion in next couple of years on road projects. Though various studies peg the current infrastructure deficit asking rate 1.5 - 2 times the above projected spent of Rs.20 trillion, I am confident, once the government pushes ahead and start to seed these projects the private and foreign capital will follow.
NHAI has recently decided to get majority of the project executed under EPC contracts and that I feel, this is a step in right direction based on the past experiences. Also, in current scenario, where the unemployment rate is rising, this will also help for finding jobs under MNREGA. In last two month of this fiscal year about 3.5million new applicants have registered, which is substantial higher than the number of applicants in FY'19 (around 1.5mio).
What are the major constraints in today's context and how these pressure points can be eased out?
We need to address the demand side so as to improve the utilisation of the equipment'. Current installation base of the equipments in India is around 650,000-700,000 numbers with >50% of this being owned by service providers (both in organized and unorganized). These machines need to be actively put to some economic value at the earliest. Covid-19 pandemic has created a novel challenge as regard to the availability of operators and technicians due to the migration to the native places. I feel, the reverse exodus or alternative solution would be possible once the pandemic situation improves and this cloud of uncertainty diminishes.
What is the scope and potential of leveraging the edge of digital tools in the entire eco-system of road sector?
All our machines are built with the best of technology and are at par with any other contemporary technology available in the respective product segments. Effective 1st Oct' 20 as we move to new BS-IV emission norms, the ECU would be mandatory, and this gives us the leverage for having a fully connected product. We are already starting to integrate and test the newly developed software and hardware and the results are exciting.
India has the highest rate of adoption of digital technology. Covid-19 and travel restriction have further enhanced the role of connecting digitally the entire ecosystem around the equipment. Now by using an app, customer can get all the after sales services with the click of a button. We are further improvising and adding self-diagnostic and quick fix procedures for our customers on this App. This will be over and above the machine performance monitoring and location tracking which is available as a standard across our range.
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