In FY2019, Rs 19,000 crore was allocated to rural roads under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), 12.42 per cent higher than the previous year’s grant of Rs 16,900 crore.

Which regions will see greater road construction activity?

Manish Arora, Business Head, Mahindra Construction Equipment, singles out Assam, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal, “because of loan agreements with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to finance the construction of over 6,254 km of all-weather rural roads in those five states under PMGSY”.

Industry voices attest that PMGSY projects are contributing to demand for earthmoving equipment.

“We expect Phase 3 of PMGSY, which is set to get underway in many states, to keep up the demand for rural road construction equipment,” says Arora.

“A few of our clients are executing PMGSY projects in northeast India,” says Nischal Mehrotra, Director, Sales & Marketing, LiuGong India.

“A considerable budget for the PMGSY will call for more machines for those projects,” says Ajay Aneja, Brand Leader, CASE India.

What sort of machines might be needed for PMGSY projects?

“Most projects driving demand for earthmoving equipment are national highways, which need highly productive products to speed up construction activity,” says Dimitrov Krishnan, Vice-President and Head, Volvo CE India. “For PMGSY projects, our SD110 soil compactor, DD90B tandem compactor, G9138 SDLG grader, EC200D excavator, etc, are very suitable.”

“Indian-made machines are workable for rural roads because these are made to carry lower loads,” opines Ashim Paul, Plant & Machinery Head, Adani Transport.