Infra investment likely to rise in 2019

bauma CONEXPO INDIA has been a major show in India after Excon for Columbia Machine Engineering. Starting slow, the four-day industry exposition went on to gather pace gradually where the company put forth new range of planetary mixture, says Ramesh Babbar, President & Director, Columbia Machine Engineering (I) Pvt Ltd.

Could you discuss about the product exhibited at bC India 2018?
We exhibited planetary mixture which is a new product in our range, and is part of our batching and mixing plant. The technology used in this product is from Techmatik which has been acquired by Columbia. So, Columbia is now making products in line with the range of polished companies that have provided this technology. We have manufactured this for the first time in India and showcased at the expo.

How have your products performed in 2018?
We had a good year on the back of infrastructure becoming increasingly aggressive and a number of projects – Sagarmala, among other big projects. While the infra projects are taking shape now, they took some to get implemented. We are getting lot of enquiries from road projects, port areas and normal vendors.

What innovations are you working on to improve experience for end users?
A host of innovations are taking place. We keep on making modifications to existing products that gives an edge for competition. So, wherever we have an Indian product in the existing range, we make modifications that work well and that is also what customers want that latest technology is being adopted.

What is your outlook for 2019?
Apart from elections, things are growing in a major way. Year 2019 should be better than 2018 in terms of infrastructure investment because the projects that were held up will take shape again. According to media reports, 70 to 80 per cent of the projects are held up because of funds. GST implementation is also taking too much of time. GST has not fully got implemented in many sectors, so once GST gets stabilised, projects will come.

Once GST gets stabilised, many projects will come.
Ramesh Babbar, President & Director, Columbia Machine Engineering (I) Pvt Ltd