At bC India 2014, we announced a tie-up with Elematic Oy, a Finnish world leading manufacturer of precast concrete plants and production lines for walls, floors and frames

 Defence Minister had visited your stall at bC India and talked about the construction technology for difficult terrains. What would you like to say on this regard?
While developing border roads it becomes difficult to take bigger size vehicles. So the concrete plants have to be designed for the trucks to take in such difficult terrains. The Minister also talked about high-altitude, low-temperature applications where the plants have to work on the higher altitude as the oxygen content is less and temperatures are low. On both these counts we have supplied our machines, but not for defence forces.

Are you going to provide similar solutions for defence forces?
As of now we are not focusing on this. We will surely do it in future.

What is your current focus?
At bC India 2014, we announced a tie-up with Elematic Oy, a Finnish world leading manufacturer of precast concrete plants and production lines for walls, floors and frames.

Could you explain us about this partnership?
We have signed a co-operation agreement for development and supply of batching and mixing plants for the precast industry. Elematic will provide its state-of-the-art technology to Aquarius for manufacturing of twin­shaft mixers and tower batching plants. Elematic will also include Aquarius’s batching and mixing plants into their offering for the Indian market and later on for selected markets globally. So this is a win-win situation for both. Our plants have been proved successful for their extruders whereas their extruders have a market demand in the precast applications.

How do you see the demand of precast solutions?
Precast will definitely pick up because people have realised its advantages. If the government needs to realise its target of developing mass housing projects, then the time and number of units that have to come out are never going to match without precast application. Even the married accommodation for defence forces can be a potential area.

Our new tower batching plant solution will offer great value to precast factories and ready-mix companies, working in the fast growing metro cities. Thanks to its compact size, the plant installation uses fairly small area, thus bringing clear savings in land costs. Another significant benefit is that the complete set-up will be environment-friendly and also avoids sound pollution.

By when the market should pick-up?
Today market is peaking up, but there is a serious liquidity crunch. The newly formed state governments are yet to come with their budgets. Central government has to come with the proper budget statement by February. So I think by next financial year the market should pick-up.

Being an Indian company what are the disadvantages you face?
Being an Indian company, easy finance is the biggest problem for us. No matter where you work, as an Indian company dealing with Indian banks and getting finance is always a challenge.

What about the advantages?
Advantage is that we enjoy our job. We are into the Indian market and are really proud of that. This is more important aspect as we are not working for a foreign company. We are working for ourselves and contributing to the nation building. We are doing the good work even on a global level.

And that goes with ‘Make in India’…
Yes, that’s completely correct. ‘Make in India’ makes a lot of good sense. It means foreign companies can come to India but they have to make it in India.

A V Dikshit,
Director,
Aquarius Engineers
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