Dimitrov Krishnan, Managing Director at Volvo CE India, in interaction with B2B Purchase, highlights the safety requirements for the environment and operators and explains their focus at bauma CONEXPO 2023.

What will your primary focus be at bauma CONEXPO 2023?

Volvo CE India will focus on construction equipment for the road and retail segments at Bauma CONEXPO. The Volvo EC210D Crawler Excavator will be displayed with Quick Coupler plus HB22 Breaker. Versatility and complete ease of operation are hallmarks of this product.

Also on display would be the EC300DBH, custom-built for the quarry. It is armed with a heavy-duty lower frame and toughened undercarriage components and is powered by a Volvo D7E engine. The EC300DL BH is designed to deliver best-in-class productivity while ensuring lower operating costs and overall operator comfort and safety.

Our exhibit of Road Machine Products will include the Volvo P7320D Track Paver, the most recent paver range to be launched in India. The unit offers a winning combination of power, production capacity, and precision for excellent paving quality with perfectly smooth mats. With a Volvo fixed screed, this paper has been proven effective at paving up to 700 tonnes per hour at 9 metres in width. This level of throughput makes it versatile enough for various applications, including city roads, highways, and waste storage areas. Remember, we have an exciting launch awaiting everyone, and it gives us great pleasure to invite all to our stall OC 10 on the afternoon of 31st Jan for the surprise reveal.

What are your thoughts on digitalising construction operations in the coming years?

The construction industry’s digital transformation is the most welcome disruption of our times. For a sector bogged down in a complex, traditional approach to business operations for ages, digital technologies go a long way to improve productivity, quality, and transparency, enhance safety, eliminate risks, cut costs, and boost margins. Volvo CE is at the cutting edge of new digital technologies in data processing, telematics, robotics, and machine learning to elevate productivity, fuel efficiency, and performance to new benchmarks.

The construction equipment sector and the government in India are working together to improve indigenisation. How do you assess India’s export potential in this context?

Thanks to the government’s ‘Make in India’ initiative, a sharp focus on R&D in the sector, and state-of-the-art manufacturing technologies adopted by domestic OEMs, locally-made construction equipment is already being exported to South Asia and developed markets like the US, UK, and EU. Besides, the Indian Construction Equipment Industry has taken several steps to source materials and produce locally. Currently, nearly 90 percent of domestic construction equipment by volume is more than 50 percent indigenised. Suppose the domestic CE industry is incentivised with special schemes like PLI, especially for critical components and electronics, hydraulics, and undercarriages. In that case, India can soon become the world’s premier exporter of construction equipment.

Which equipment and developments, in your opinion, will drive the industry’s shift to sustainable construction?

Every construction project involves diverse materials, equipment, processes, safety and pollution standards, and stakeholders. Needs, priorities, and costs should be considered at every project step to ensure sustainable development for the benefit of all. New-age, low-noise, zero-pollution electric equipment remains the best bet for sustainable construction over the long term. New machines driven by innovative technologies that deliver super productivity with high energy efficiency will drive the industry in the short to medium term. These would include machines capable of running on alternative, eco-friendly fuels like biodiesel.

How are we addressing project safety and management requirements with the enormous increase in infrastructure projects?

The infrastructure project is challenging to manage when working on multiple infrastructure projects simultaneously. The need of the hour is rules and regulations, the right tools and processes to ensure timely execution within desired budgets, with prime importance accorded to worker safety.

Volvo CE offers construction equipment that ensures total safety during operations and delivers high uptimes and productivity with unmatched fuel efficiency and timely completion of most complex projects.

What are the environmental safeguards in place to manage carbon footprints?  

All Volvo construction equipment is compliant with CEV IV emission norms. They are capable of running on alternative fuels such as biodiesel. That apart, Volvo CE lays a lot of emphasis on operator training for efficient and environment-friendly use of the machines it sells.

Volvo CE is heavily invested in the green journey. Our R&D is round the clock on a full range of futuristic equipment – from battery-operated and hydrogen fuel-cell-based products to grid-connected machines. Our two big goals are to reduce carbon emissions by 50 percent in overall operations by 2030 and achieve 100 percent fossil fuel-free vehicles by 2040.

For more details visit: https://www.volvoce.com/