Mahindra CE has been a pioneer in providing telematics solution to its customers in the construction equipment industry.

– Jalaj Gupta

Business Head, Commercial Vehicles Business Unit, Mahindra & Mahindra

What is the current market trend or which are the sector driving the demand for Motor Graders in India?

The country is now recovering from the pandemic and the government has increased its focus on infrastructure development. The demand for motor graders is expected to grow in the long term due to the sheer amount of road work that is needed to be undertaken in the country. Sales of motor graders follow very closely the trends of expenditure on the construction of new roads and the maintenance of the road network, so demand for machines will largely depend on the speed at which existing and future road projects are executed. The backlog of pending road construction work in the country, as well as the government’s ambitious infrastructure development plans, offer huge potential for growth in the motor grader demand. The government’s focus on rural and urban infrastructure development, such as AMRUT and Smart Cities, ‘Swachch Bharat’, DDUGJY, PMKSY, PMGSY, Bharat net, and housing for all will help the growth of motor graders.

How do you see a growth in the use of Motor Graders in terms of rural road construction?

As part of the Ministry of Rural Development, Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), a scheme to connect rural India by all-weather roads under the Ministry of Rural Development was completed in March 2019, three years earlier than estimated. The government has inaugurated PMGSY Phase III in December 2019. It aims to upgrade 125,000 kilometres of roads over the five years at an estimated cost of Rs802.5 billion, which would extend its scope to connect habitations to agriculture and rural markets. In addition to the above road construction programmes, each state has its own programme for building roads, which includes state highways and district roads. The Road Master G75 Smart offers road contractors, liberation from compromised makeshift solution, such as manual labor and farm tractor-based graders. It is the ideal machine for spreading and grading applications for the rural, semi-rural and district roads, land development, internal housing and commercial roads. It enables small road contractors to participate in projects with grading needs for government flagship programs as Smart City, as well as PMGSY roads. The Road Master G75 Smart provides small contractors affordable uncompromised mechanization and an opportunity to deploy a registered motor grader in the smaller projects which was not possible hitherto with the conventional graders.  Also, it will help improve the quality and longevity of work and quicker turnaround of projects.

How do you look at the design changes in Motor Graders for different applications?

“We at Mahindra are committed to provide disruptive products and services for our customers and are today launching yet another product innovation in the fast-growing road construction equipment segment, the Mahindra RoadMaster G75 Smart Motor Grader. It has been designed and developed in India based on deep insights of the needs of smaller road contractors. Our aim is to help small contractors break free from sub-optimal grading practices and to upgrade them to mechanization and enable them to participate in nation building. The brand-new G75 Smart motor grader is a highly reliable machine with low owning and operating costs and will truly be their ‘Profit Ka Partner’. Our existing RoadMaster range of motor graders has already captured over 20% market share, and we are confident that G75 Smart will further strengthen our position while transforming construction of small roads in India, which constitute about 60% of country’s roads.”

What are your views on Motor Graders that are used in mining? What are the features supporting mining applications?

The mining industry in India is growing at a rapid pace owing to mineral rich soil of the country. Further, in the recent past, the mining activities in the country have received a further boost due to new legislation aimed at increasing private sector participation in explorations and extractions.

This increasing mining operation in the country have a direct correlation with the motor grader equipment sector. This is because motor graders highly improve productivity and efficiency and even reduce the operating cost at the mining sites. How? Well, motor graders help in construction and maintenance of haul roads and help in movement of men and materials. Haul roads at the mining site if not constructed and maintained properly can end up costing lot of money. In fact, always, the haul roads at mining sites should be free of puddles, potholes, ruts and gullies. There should be no spillage or debris on the road and there should be no rubber deposits on tight and rocky turns. These situations can be averted only through constant maintenance of haul roads through motor graders which always ensure smooth road surface. It goes without saying that proper haul road maintenance equals saving huge money on truck maintenance. Particularly, during the rainy season, motor graders become much more important as by keeping the haul road in good condition, they prevent the haul trucks from churning up the road surface by making it less slippery. Thus, motor graders highly help in boosting cost efficiency and productivity at the mining site.

What are the innovative technology trends in Motor Graders?

Mahindra Construction Equipment has been a pioneer in providing telematics solution to its customers in the construction equipment industry. “Continuing the legacy, we are pleased to introduce iMAXX Telematics Technology – a prognostic, diagnostic and predictive fleet management system in our entire range of EarthMaster and RoadMaster. You can think of it as your personal assistant that updates you with vital information about your equipment and your business. iMAXX is already tried and tested solutions in our trucks business and has benefitted the customers in many ways. With effective machine monitoring it also alerts on the preventive maintenance triggers to avoid any major breakdown.”

Can you brief us about the latest Motor Graders and solutions from your company?

We at Mahindra are committed to provide disruptive products and services for our customers and are today launching yet another product innovation in the fast-growing road construction equipment segment, the Mahindra RoadMaster G75 Smart Motor Grader. It has been designed and developed in India based on deep insights of the needs of smaller road contractors. Our aim is to help small contractors break free from sub-optimal grading practices and to upgrade them to mechanization and enable them to participate in nation building. The brand-new G75 Smart motor grader is a highly reliable machine with low owning and operating costs and will truly be their “Profit Ka Partner”. Our existing RoadMaster range of motor graders has already captured over 20% market share, and we are confident that G75 Smart will further strengthen our position while transforming construction of small roads in India, which constitute about 60% of country’s roads.

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