international
construction
april 2014
REGIONALREPORT: INDIA
30
Election hopes
Bi tower crane, whichwas bought for its
safety features and productivity. Project
manager, K R Shivakumar said, “With
experience of Liebherr cranes reliability
on previous projects, l had no hesitation
in recommending the 85 EC-Bi for this
project.”
The maturing of the construction
industry is also stimulating growth in
demolitionwork,whereold infrastructure
is too old or unsuited to renovation.This
is the case for the Dhankuni-Kharagpur
highway, in Jharkhand, near Kolkata,
where the Pakuria Bridge – essentially a
1 km stretch of elevated highway over
a dry river bed and railway – has been
demolished to allow the road to be
modernised andwidened.
Mumbai-based Matte & Associates
took just two months to take down the
bridge and clear away the debris using a
fleet of four heavy-dutyVolvo excavators;
an EC210 B-Series, EC210 B-Prime,
EC290 B-Series and EC290B-Prime, which the company has
owned for five years.
RamMatte, owner ofMatte&Associates said, “We took the
bridge down so quickly that if people weren’t already familiar
with it, theywouldnever know it even existed.OurVolvos have
helped ensure that. Any demolition equipmentmust deliver on
safety, comfort, reach, power and control tomake a difference.
In fact, the first two – safety and comfort – are critical because
demolition is a hazardous business
He added, “If you askme, pulling down structures is twice as
hard as putting them up.”
This all illustrates that despite the headaches of recent years,
there is still work to be won in India, and that the industry
is changing and maturing. Still, contractors will be looking to
whoever wins the forthcoming election to kick some more life
into the sector and bring projects to themarket quicker.
iC
Water well drilling is a key activity
in drought-strickenWestern India,
withwells having to go deeper as
thewater table falls. In order tomeet
the rising challenges of the business,
Godavari Tubewell Drilling Company,
of Rajkot, replaced the old engine in
its IR compressor with a new Volvo
Penta D16, which it says saves it up
to 15% of its fuel bill.
Mumbai-basedMatte &Associates
demolished a 1 km stretch of
elevated highway near Kolkata
in the space of twomonths,
as part of an infrastructure
modernisation programme.