The Indian government has allowed 100% FDI through automatic route subject to applicable laws & regulation.

Ramesh Palagiri

Managing Director & CEO, Wirtgen India

How do you assess the growth prospects of the CE industry as a whole, in terms of finance and investments?

As far as economy is concerned, infrastructure is one area which will drive growth, create employment and the government is already focused on this. But for us - to have the kind of growth that is required for India to get into the double-digit GDP, is to find avenues for long term funding at competitive rates for infrastructure projects. This way there will be a manifold increase in the award and execution of infra projects. Once there are enough infra projects under execution, the demand for construction equipment will increase substantially. The second area what we need reforms or changes is to ensure that funding is available for purchase or lease of construction equipment. NBFC's were primarily funding the CE equipment and in the last couple of years the NBFC's are in a financial crisis. The banks have stepped in - to some extent to meet this gap, but in spite of this funding for construction equipment remains a challenge. And also, to make leasing more friendly would also help.

What do you think is the current status of the industry in terms of investments for training and up-skilling of talents?

During the pandemic one area on which investments continued was on R & D and that's what helps the Wirtgen Group to be the innovation leader and to keep introducing disruptive technologies.

With more sophisticated machines coming into the market, skill upgradation is very key and all manufacturers including Wirtgen Group have been working very closely with our customers in training their operators, imparting application knowledge to them so that we get better roads. We are also running operator schools at our premises which help youth to get employment and also for our customers to get trained manpower to operate and maintain their machines.

What are your expectations from the government in terms of investment, policy changes for Construction Equipment sector? 

The Indian government is planning to increase the national highway network to 2,00,000 km by the year 2022. During the year 2018-19 national highways were constructed at the rate of 30 km per day, the government has set a target of constructing 40 km per day national highway in 2020. The NHAI has achieved a record 3979 km national highway construction during FY 2019-2020 over 3380 km national highway in FY 2018-19.

The government is focusing to increase the road connectivity by increasing the length of national highway, expressway, economic corridors, industrial corridors, village roads (PMGSY) etc. The Indian government is also encouraging usage of innovative materials, automation & machine control technologies in the construction sector in order to improve efficiency and lower the impact on environment. The government has allowed 100% FDI through automatic route subject to applicable laws & regulation. The future trend indicate that the road construction will increase in India & new technologies will be required to fulfil this need.

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