(L-R) Virendra Gupta, Deputy Director General, CII; Vipin Sondhi, Chairman, CII Trade Fair Council & Chairman, Excon 2019; Nagendra Nath Sinha, IAS, Chairman, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI); Mr Sandeep Singh, President, Indian Construction Equipment Manufactures’ Association (ICEMA), at the interactive meeting on Excon 2019 on 20 July, 2019 at New Delhi.

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has announced the 10th edition of EXCON, South Asia’s largest construction equipment trade fair, which will take place in Bengaluru between December 10 and 14.

Excon 2019, the flagship initiative of CII in the construction equipment sector, was launched during an interactive session by Nagendra Nath Sinha, IAS, Chairman, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) in the presence of Vipin Sondhi, Chairman, CII Trade Fair Council & Chairman, Excon 2019 and Sandeep Singh, President, Indian Construction Equipment Manufactures’ Association (ICEMA).

With the theme “Smart i-Tech – Next Gen India@75”, Excon 2019 will demonstrate the role of smart technologies and innovation in design in the manufacture of next generation construction equipment and machinery to support the rapid pace of infrastructure development in the country.

Excon 2019 will feature a five-day international exhibition spread across a display area of 3,00,000 sq. m. Excon 2019 will attract over 1250 exhibitors including 350+ overseas companies from 25 countries including China, Germany, Italy, South Korea, Turkey, UK and USA among others. The exhibition would attract over 70,000 business visitors from India and abroad.

Sinha said, “It is very heartening to know that this EXCON has come into existence when the highway sector was growing. The growth of the Construction Equipment Industry and the Highway Development programme is progressing parallely.” He also mentioned that with initiatives of the Government of India like the Bharatmala Project, the construction equipment and allied sectors are set to grow at a faster pace. “If you talk about the investment in the infrastructure sector, in the next 5 years, the investment will be `100 lakh crore over the next five years. The numbers tell you the growth in the construction and infrastructure sector. What is very heartening to note is that the sector is employing and emphasising on the interconnectedness of the equipment that they are putting together,” he further added.

As part of the 10th year celebrations of EXCON, CII would organise special activities like celebrating women in infrastructure, exclusive pavilions on AI, IoT, Robotics, startups, components and parts; job fairs, contest for school children, tree plantation day besides green rating of the CE industry.

EXCON 2019 endeavours to build India’s infrastructure in an ecologically sustainable manner, enable projects on Smart Cities, support Swachh Bharat programs, promote Skill Development and position “Make in India” as the national agenda for achieving holistic growth in the infrastructure and related sectors.

EXCON will be an ideal platform to connect all infrastructure stakeholders, including policymakers, investors, and developers, with the exciting growth story of India’s infrastructure. It will address both marketing and educational platform for all stakeholders. Government and senior bureaucrats have capitalised it as a knowledge platform for various departments (PWDs and civil engineering departments), private contractors, builders, road/ infrastructure developers, smart city/urban planning, army, border roads organisation, etc. to witness the latest technology, equipment and machinery display which will enable accelerated infrastructure development needs of the nation.