We need to get more long term investments at low interest rates.

We are working on new technologies where it is possible to measure the quality and performance characteristics of the job done while settling the bills of the contractors.

P Ramesh,  MD & CEO, Wirtgen India

What is your take rebooting the activities in the road sector? 

Rebooting the activities in the infra sector and more so in the road sector is critical for the economy as they provide immediate jobs for all the immigrant workers who have gone back.   This industry can provide lot of employment especially in the road sector. We expect the road construction activity to pickup pace from end of August or early September onwards, once the monsoon tapers off and the immigrant workers are back at the jobsites. There are enough projects which are already awarded and contracts available with the contractors. Only the work needs to get going on these projects which will automatically revive the economy. Definitely the plan of the government of India to award enough jobs under the infrastructure pipeline would help this sector and the economy.

How do you assess the initiatives from the government / NHAI specifically to reboot the activities in the road sector?

NHAI and the government has taken a lot of initiatives to help the contractors, one of them is to release all the pending payments which will help the liquidity for the contractors as their revenues have come down dramatically in the last 2-3 months.

What are the major constraints in today's context and how these pressure points can be eased out?

Major constraints we are facing today as a service provider is that the road construction activity has picked up at around 20-25 % levels, however we have been facing challenges in sending our service team to the jobsites where it is required and also to deliver spare parts on time to our customers due to the lockdown situation and restrictions in various districts as the free movement of people and goods is still a challenge.

What is the scope and potential of leveraging the edge of digital tools in the entire eco-system of road sector? 

Digital tools are already being used in the road construction sector and also the construction equipment in the form of telematics and various other technologies to measure the work that has been done, the raw material used at the jobsites, and this trend will continue. As far as the government leveraging the digital tools, we are working on new technologies where it is possible to measure the job as it is being done and also to measure the quality and performance characteristics of the job which can be used as a database by the government while settling the bills of the contractors.

What are the reforms that you expect for the healthy growth of the road sector?

For the healthy growth of the road sector, we need to get more long term investments at low interest rates for the infrastructure like roads which will help this sector as we definitely need more investment to come from outside, for the government to fulfil its ambitions under the national infrastructure pipeline.

Second is - how we are able to improve the quality of the final product what we deliver to the end customer - who are the road users. So here there is a lot of scope for the government and the contractors and the equipment manufacturers to take several steps to achieve these goals so that Indian roads meet world class standards.

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