At EXCON 2019, Tata Hitachi Construction Machinery Company’s clarion call will be ‘Chalo Desh Banayein!’. Sarada Vishnubhatla talks to Managing Director Sandeep Singh to know more about the products and technologies that the company will showcase at the show
The construction equipment and machinery segment in India is fast catching up with the latest advanced technologies similar to what is already being adopted by the commercial vehicle industry. Tata Hitachi Construction Machinery Company (Tata Hitachi) is one to walk the talk. Be it advanced technology such as artificial intelligence, telematics or IoT, Tata Hitachi is planning to showcase their machines equipped with them and more at EXCON 2019 in December. Elaborates Sandeep Singh: “Tata Hitachi has enhanced technology to showcase, including customised attachments. This is the need of the hour today in building smart cities across India and in both building and improving infrastructure.”
“We will have on display special machinery attachments for different purposes – be it for demolition of roads, for de-silting of ponds and water bodies, for scrapping old vehicles or for any other requirement. The kind of attachments our clients need, we have them. With renewed emphasis being put on infrastructure development by the Central Government, these will take the spotlight at the show. Tata Hitachi has already planned for this and we are going to play a big and crucial role, both at the show and also in time to come.” According to Singh, the faster the technology is adopted in the infrastructure equipment industry, the easier it will be to bring it at par with developed countries.
One of the positive fallouts would be triggering India’s economic growth which will pave the way for the country to achieve the target of becoming a $5 trillion economy in the given time frame. But Singh also points out the challenges involved. “In India, it is generally the case that adopting changes is difficult. Our operators, our customers and stakeholders must appreciate the need to pay for quality and advanced technology. But this realisation is taking time. The onus is on us to generate more awareness through demonstrations to highlight the advantages.” It is the younger generation that is keen on modernising the industry and that is exactly the reason why Singh is hopeful to impress upon them with the latest technologies at EXCON 2019.
He feels that the next generation will be the one to uphold and carry forward the beacon of growth into future despite the slowdown in the economy now. In India, renting of construction equipment plays a major role in business. Singh agrees: “In developed countries, rentals constitute about 50-60% of the business but in India it is still in the hands of the unorganised sector. They provide equipment at a low cost but cannot commit quality. Tata Hitachi is planning to play a major role in professionalising the rental business. As a capital-intensive segment, the responsibility lies with the OEMs, leading corporates and dealers to provide peace of mind to customers in this regard.”
“And that is why it is important to hire quality equipment with customised attachments which offer higher efficiency,” he adds. Meanwhile, Tata Hitachi is urging the government to give special weightage to technology, efficiency and productivity in the construction equipment sector as a norm. Tata Hitachi has developed its products to incorporate features like online access to location of equipment, online health monitoring system, automatic sensors and alarms for machine health, maintenance, electrical excavators, AC drive rigid dump trucks. The company has also introduced ConSite – an IT-enabled tool through which machine reports are transmitted to the customers’ e-mail address, helping them make their operations smart and efficient. The company also helps its customers in facilitating financing of rentals and purchases through tie-ups with seven major financing companies.