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On the ground level, especially in the road sector, infra companies still shy away from bidding for NHAI projects. What is your take on this?
Immediate attention is required towards environmental clearances for BOT projects, the need for long-term funding and also addressing the land acquisition issues, to accelerate thegrowth in infrastructure projects. The bidding systems for BOT projects and especially for the EPC projects needsto be rationalised to ensure that onlythose contractors with technicaland manpower competence are allowed to bid for these projects so that once they get the project they bid more rationally and are executed because currently in some cases, the contractors after being awarded the projects find that it is no more viable for various reasons, some of which are attributed to their bidding and some to the government. So, definitely the bidding system needs to be rationalised to ensure there are strict prequalification norms for submitting a commercial bid.

What are the growth prospects for milling recycling equipment?
Cold milling technology, another innovative and cost-effective way, was introduced to the Indian market around five years back.This is more popular and has received more acceptance in the Indian market. Cold recycling is another latest technology we have introduced to the Indian market where we initiated some projects with bigBOT operators like L&T, IDPL and ITNL for national highways. We are already seeing the results of these coming.

Brief us on the range of compaction and paving equipment offered by Wirtgen. 
Our range of compactors is equipped with intelligent compaction system and is designed to achieve optimum compaction with minimum number of passes to reduce the overall operating cost. Hamm compactors can also be offered with intelligent compaction systems like Hammtronic and HCQ system as an option. We have recently introduced the Vogele range of Dash 3 paversfor road construction. These innovative and eco-friendly asphalt pavers are based on user-friendly Vogele state-of-the-art technology. The machine concept of the Dash 3 generation focuses entirely on lower consumption - lower emissions - lower costs. The Vogele EcoPlus low-emissions package combines a number of individual measures, distinctly reducing the fuel consumption and noise of Dash 3 pavers.

Will there be any more capex in the next couple of years?
We are expanding our manufacturing base in India, and would start producing the Kleemann range of crushing and screening plants for Indian market by April 2015. We have also launched tandem rollers for the Indian market, further to our first Indian product - soil compactors and would also start producing Vogele pavers for the local market in India by 2016.

What are the initiatives taken by Wirtgento sustain the growth?
Wirtgen India is offering new products to the market, also introducing innovative technologies to Indian market. All machines from the Wirtgen Group are designed to ensure more productivity and less fuel consumption. We also provide total solutions to our customers; once a machine is sold, right from commissioning the machine, be it a slipform paver, a recycler, soil stabiliser or asphalt paving, depending on the nature of the job. We can prove to a customer that thelifetime cost of our machines is the lowest.

We have ?Application Specialists? at our project sites to work closely with the project managers and supervisors.
This ensures a maximum output from our machines.

What is your take on bC India? Is there any new product launches?
The bC India exhibition is a good opportunity for visitors to witness a wide range of equipment, latest technologies and state-of-the-art machinery from both Indian and global companies. A wide rangeof our products displayed at bC India including latest product innovations would demonstrate why we are the global market leaders in mobile road construction machines.

The exhibition wouldalso be a platform to showcase the Wirtgen Group as the complete solution provider for road building and road rehabilitation machines and also in the field of mobile crushing and screening plants.