After couple of sluggish years in most of segments due to India’s economic reasons, we are expecting a boom in the defence sector during 2017-18 especially in the underground construction projects.

Manikandan Mahalingam,
Technical Manager, Paschal Formwork India

How do you see the technological transition in the field of formwork?
After a couple of years of sluggishness, we could see some upbeat in the infrastructural and construction project execution. Based on that, we have modified some of our products that are going to be useful for our customers. We have introduced the adjustable modular formwork that is useful for residential building industry.

Further, the product being versatile can be used in other sectors as well. As most of the construction industry is adapting to shear wall technology, our adjustable modular column formwork will allow us to cater to this new segment. The simple universal principle enables to form a variety of different reinforced concrete columns from just a few individual panels of the adjustable modular column formwork. RFID (Radio Frequency Identifier) embedded in our modular panels can be an effective tool for asset management.

Today, the focus is on reducing cost, increasing productivity and ease in handling of formwork. What is your take on this regard?
In any segment of construction projects, maximum utilisation of resources reduces the cost and gives us return on investment. Paschal’s modular is a system that suits in any segments, thereby provide maximum usage in any project. For the horizontal sections, we use lightweight Paschal deck which increase the productivity and are easy to handle. Together, these products make an excellent combination to attain all three benefits mentioned above. It also reduces the cycle time compared to slab systems thereby offers better cost advantage. The USP of this system is flexibility that allows overlapping in any dimension in either direction.

Depending on availability, the formwork systems can be moved completely by using a crane or can be dismantled into individual components for material movement and assemble manually in a project. Our products can be racked in an effective manner in space constraint situation too.

What about the reusages?
Paschal products are known for their repetitions because the skin parts (surface) can be used for about 250 times. The same can be refurbished in our factory at Vizag even after using it for 250 times within a span of 4 years or so. About 20 per cent of the costs go in to the refurbishment. The frame can be used for approximately 20 years after timely refurbishment.

Moreover, to adapt the technology in to our systems, we have incorporated RFID in to it. Now a user can feed and track all the parameters of a system – how long and how many times it has been used etc. We are also offering our services of redesigning with available Paschal formwork forfree of cost and it save’s timeeffectively for our customers.

Do you provide training too?
We consider every project of our clients as our own project. We depute our own engineers to provide support to the end-users especially during the initial 2-3 cycles. During this time we make the users get acquainted with our systems.  We don’t leave any site unless the people responsible at end users are not adequately trained. We also provide occasional training at our center in Hyderabad for budding engineers and formwork enthusiasts.

What is your focus for 2017?
Paschal entered in the Indian market in 2010 and has emerged as one of the leaders in the industry. We have been present in all the segments of constructions like, infrastructure, industrial, commercial, power and buildings all through these years and are now focusing on the industrial and defence sectors. After couple of sluggish years in most of segments due to India’s economic reasons, we are expecting a boom in the defence sector during 2017-18 especially in the underground construction projects.

What is your revenue target for 2017?
Our target remains satisfied customers than the figure based. We wish to add about 24 new customers every year, in addition to serving our value happy customers. As of now we are focusing more on our popular modular formwork, as it suits Indian industry perfectly. Gradually we will be introducing more products to strengthen the portfolio and diverse our reach.