Not only are our plants, our products also eco-friendly says Jasmeet Singh, Head - Corporate Communications, JCB India Ltd.
India has an impending need to build infrastructure to nurture its economic growth, what are your views on this?
Infrastructure development is the need of the hour as there is a tremendous scope for development of Infrastructure in the country. World class infrastructure also forms the basis for the success of government’s Make in India program – which aims at positioningIndia as a key investment destination. The government’s initiatives and policies are rightly targeted towards achieving this objective.
We have been witnessing a recovery in the industry after almost three years of decline. Roads and Highways is one of the leading growth drivers at present. We see other sectors also such as railways, irrigation, urban rejuvenation and power driving growth in the coming months.
The Union Budget 2016 is also promising for the Infrastructure industry - a record budgetary allocation of ` 2.21 lakh crores for infrastructure sector is the right move to revive infrastructure.
The present government has laid down ambitious plans to build the Indian roads and highways, at a pace which was once unbelievable, to ensure these plans fructify what kind of technologies and equipments need to be utilised?
The road construction pace has now reached 20 kms a day with a target to reach 30 kms a day in the coming months. The sector would require innovative solutions
to ensure quality, and timely completion
of projects.
The Indian roads equipment sector is fully prepared. Large scale equipment would be required to handle the scale of work that is envisaged to come through.
JCB India presently offers three models to cater to the demand in the Indian market - the VM115 soil compactor, the VMT 860 asphalt tandem roller and the smaller VMT 330 tandem roller. These world class machines are manufactured at our state-of-the-art Pune facility and are also exported to various countries around the globe.
It has been quite some time since JCB introduced livelink telematics system for its machines in India, how has it helped in delivering an efficient after sales service at a reasonable cost?
Livelink is an advanced telematics system that enables our customers to remotely manage their machines – putting them in better control of their machines/fleets. This state-of-the-art technology provides updates regarding service alerts, operations and security by using the geo fencing and time fencing features.
Our machines fitted with this system get SMS alerts on their mobile phones or smart devices - the information is available in real time regarding the health of the machine including engines.
To monitor these machines in real time, we have set up a world class central command centre at our Ballabgarh facility. Our dealerships have also set up similar Livelink command centres to ensure that real time support is provided to the customers at minimal cost.
What are the steps taken by JCB India towards green technology initiatives and ensure its products are eco-friendly?
JCB has always been on the forefront with numerous ‘Go Green Drives’ and we have taken many initiatives to make our products and processes greener and environment friendly.
The entire Delhi-NCR facility is conceptualized and built on the basic fundamentals of environment friendly & green principles - this is a zero discharge facility with 14 rain water harvest pits and 400 KL capacity water catchment. The process water is treated and recycled for use in horticulture and sanitation purpose. We have nano technology pretreatment at the powder coating shop that operates on principles of zero sludge generation.
Our latest facility in Jaipur is also a zero discharge facility – like our factory in Delhi-NCR, we have a large water reservoirof over 5,000 sq.m. for rain water harvesting in Jaipur. We also have solar panels for generating electricity.
Not only our plants, our products are also eco-friendly. Our best seller range of backhoe loaders is the most fuel efficient machine in the category. Our latest range of ‘ecoXcellence’ backhoe loaders, fitted with JCB ecoMAX engine – specifically designed for off-highway applications – provides fuel savings of upto 10% to the customers. Our purpose designed ecoMAX engine is known for providing best-in-class fuel efficiency in the Indian market.
Do you think project execution in India has started picking up? How do you forecast the next 24 months in terms of project execution in India?
As I mentioned, this is an exciting time for the sector. We are now seeing an upward growth which needs to be sustained. Given the initiatives announced by the government and the planned investments in the infrastructure space, construction equipment sector will continue to grow.
2016 has had a positive start; however, long term sustained growth will largely depend on how the industry performs in the coming few quarters.
How is the backhoe loaders sales faring against excavator segment and is the Indian customer demand tilting towards higher capacity equipment?
Backhoe loaders and excavators are two different segments in the construction equipment sector. While a backhoe loader is used in multiple general construction application, an excavator is used for large scale material removal which can be earthwork or overburden removal.
Over the past 6 months, we are seeing an upturn in the demand of both the segments i.e. the backhoe loaders and the excavators. As mentioned earlier this has happened primarily due to the roads and highways segment seeing growth. As project sizes increase, there will be a greater requirement for higher capacity machines such as excavators and wheeled loaders. At JCB, we have a full range of excavators from the JS30 – a 3T mini to the JS 220LC - a large 22T machine.
