With the aim of strengthening its relationship with ASEAN and the East Asian economies, the Indian government upgraded to ‘Act East’ policy from the ‘Look East’ policy in 2014. Also, the country plans to invest Rs 25,000 crore for developing roads, bridges and waterways in North-East over the next 2-3 years. All this initiatives makes this region an emerging marketplace. The recently concluded ConMac 2017, the construction and mining equipment mega event for the North-East region, was the gateway to this untapped potential market.

The 3-day exhibition featured over 125 companies from construction equipment sector and witnessed more than 6,000 business visitors. Major companies like JCB, Larsen & Toubro-Komatsu, Tata Hitachi, TIPL (CAT), Mahindra & Mahindra, SANY, Schwing Stetter, BKT, Kobelco, MRF,  BEML,  SREI, KYB Conmat, HPCL, Sandvik, Ajax Fiori, Action Construction Equipment and Wirtgen participated in the event to make the most of it.

Here we present what some of the key participants have to say about the emerging opportunities in North-East market.

With North-East getting the much needed impetus in the infrastructure sector, ConMac 2017 presents us with an opportunity to display our products best suited for the development of Infrastructure in the region. We look forward to leveraging this potential, especially in roads, highways and railways through our new range of products comprising of larger Excavators and Compactors. JCB over the years has invested in setting up an unmatched parts and product support network in the region and is committed to deliver maximum productivity and profitability to its customers through the products and services offered by this network.
Vipin Sondhi, MD and CEO, JCB India Limited

North-East is a very high potential area. It is a strategically development area for Indian Army and Railways. So far, North-East remains an untapped market for the construction equipment industry. However, as the government promises to invest Rs 25,000 crore for developing roads, bridges and waterways in the Northeast and Assam, we find huge opportunities here. We offer pumps which go into construction activities, therefore making the most of it. We have a good client base and are quite optimistic about the North-East market.
Rajesh S. Chawda, Managing Director, Automeck

Columbia has a good presence in the North-East having many machines working in Assam. We are looking at expanding our reach to other states of this region. Indian government has been funding several big projects in this region especially in the roads and hydroelectricity. Now the growth is expected to expand from Assam to the other states. This will give a rise for industries to come and deliver in the North-East region. Therefore we find North-East is the right place to expand our business and this is absolutely the right time!
Upendra Mujumdar, Head – Sales & Marketing, Columbia Machine Engineering India Pvt Ltd.

The future of infrastructure development is very bright in the North-Eastern region. Hence we would like to address the deficit in mechanisation in this region by choosing the right products which can
speed up the infrastructure construction and explain this to our existing as well as future potential customers. We would like to make the users realise the importance of executing projects at higher speed which will be a new thing for the region. North-East market also poses challenges especially due to prolonged monsoon season. Therefore, we are also open to understand the local market and introduce products accordingly.
V.G. Sakthikumar, Managing Director, Schwing Stetter Sales & Services Pvt Ltd

The purpose of having Conmac in North-East is to have a ‘mini’ Excon so that it provides a platform for customers to see the latest offerings in terms of technology, products and solutions. It also provides a platform for manufacturers to understand the needs of the customers here. This edition of Conmac will help customers and equipment manufacturers to interact with each other and understand we can do to
build a strong mutually beneficial relationship over the next many years. L&T with Komatsu has been in North-East market for a very long time and we have many products that are really appropriate to serve the customers here. Our state-of-the-art products enabled with telematics can be of great service to this part of the country because when machines are working in remote areas telematics plays a very important role in monitoring the performance of the machine and providing service accordingly.
Arvind K. Garg, EVP and Head, Construction and Mining Machinery Business, Larsen & Toubro Limited

The construction equipment industry in India is witnessing a very positive trend. The excavators segment has achieved about 40 per cent growth during the past one year. North-East is one of the primary areas where government is trying to focus more across all sectors like railways, roads, roads and other infrastructure development. We are also very optimistic about this growth trend and would like to be a part of developing North-East.
Andy Dhanaraj, Director – Sales, Global Construction & Infrastructure, Caterpillar India

As the Indian government has shifted its direction from ‘Look East’ to ‘Act East’, we expect lots of infrastructure development related activities happening in North-East. Though it may take some time, we are optimistic about it. We participated in Conmac to take a stock of the market and based on that we will make our strategy which will suit to this area.  
Manoj Kumar, Country Head, Forest Press Hydraulics Limited

Conmac is one of the key events for North-East region of India. We are already having a sizable population of equipment here. We have a dealer that covers six states of the region and another dealer is covering Arunachal Pradesh. We have set up services and parts supports in many locations. To be closer to the customers and to reduce the delivery time for our equipment, we have a machine depot at Guwahati. In 2017, we are planning to bring in our next generation earthmoving and construction excavator “Generation 10” to the Indian market which is already available in European market. The machine (SK300LC-10) will have severa new improved features that make it more durable, more fuel efficient and easier to operate.
Santosh Kr. Jaruhar, Advisor – Support Services, Kobelco Construction Equipment India Pvt Ltd

As of now our market in North-East is still small as we entered this market only two years back with Hamm rollers. Now a lot of projects are coming up in the North-East which will spur the demand in a big way. We are also launching some new products including Vogele’s small paver now produced in Pune – both 6-meter on wheel and 7.3-meter on track. This is a product which is ideally suited for this market. So we are definitely here to stay and strengthening our setup in the North-East. Also, as lots of concrete roads are planned here, we foresee market potential for our 2.5-meter and 3.5-meter Slipform pavers. Further, due to the difficult terrain, customers prefer mobile equipment and we expect good demand for our track-mounted mobile crushing and screening units.
Ramesh Palagiri, Managing Director & CEO, Wirtgen India Pvt Ltd