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PNC Infratech Ltd is a leading infrastructure construction, development and management company in the country. Chakresh Jain, Managing Director elaborates on the company?s experience with various LiuGong construction equipment. Excerpts from the interview...

Could you give a brief of PNC group?
We work in infrastructure sector in roads for 2-lane to 6-lane projects, on PPP model. We also maintain industrial estates, lay power transmission lines. In the road sector we have worked on cash, BOT, EPC and Annuity and O&M including toll collection type contracts awarded by NHAI. We are still working on several such contracts in India.

Which are the major ongoing projects and order book with PNC?
PNC has a current order book of Rs 5,500 crore. We are mainly focused on India?s longest expressway from Delhi to Lucknow wherein our contract value is Rs 1,700 crore for our part in the 301 km of this greenfield highway project. Other parts of the project have been awarded to L&T, NCC and Afcons and all contractors are working to complete their work before time. Our scope of work entails 100,00,000 cu m of excavation, 17,00,000 cu m of GSB; plus bituminous works and 500 m long bridge. There are more than 100 under passes; and three small bridges.

How have you built the trust with Central and State government agencies?
So far which ever department PNC has worked with we have secured repeat orders irrespective of the type of contract namely cash, EPC etc. We start planning how to complete the work before time as we provide end-to-end solution. We have our own mining, crushing and screening; transportation, batching plants and other machinery including road painting and marking machines. We deploy the same to execute the works as per our planning without being dependent on outside resources. Therefore we deliver projects before time and this is our main strength which is highly appreciated by our clients.We believe in delivering more than our commitments.

What is the fleet size and the type of equipment being deployed by PNC?
PNC uses the best international makes of equipment. We have batch mix asphalt plants, Metso crushers, Schwing Stetter concrete batching plants, and machines from Caterpillar and other recognised international brands. Our gross block would be around Rs 350 crore.

How did you select LiuGong equipment and which equipment are part of your fleet from this supplier?
We use LiuGong loaders and we have 20 machines in our fleet. Earlier I was using Caterpillar 950H loader which used to cost around Rs 1 crore. When LiuGong approached us, I was not sure how a Chinese machine will perform because our focus is to deliver the project before time and cost of machine was not very important. After a long follow up by LiuGong, I calculated that if I can amortise a LiuGong machine in three years as against seven years for a Caterpillar machine, it may be a value for money proposition. So I gave it a trial and found that since LiuGong manufactures the loader in India I was able to get any part required in time and breakdown hours were minimised. That is how LiuGong won my trust vote.

What is PNC?s focus on safety and what are the steps taken by them for ensuring the same?
PNC Infratech gives high importance to safety and security of its human resources; operations and assets while execution of projects. The multi-pronged safety measures taken care of by us at construction sites include segregation of active work areas and movement areas with proper barricading and fencing, provisions of safety belts, helmets, shoes, jackets, gloves, goggles and other personal protection equipment to all construction workers, provision of signages and markings, special monitoring while operation of cranes and heavy equipment, installation of fire prevention, protection and fighting systems and provision of adequate lighting during night working.

What is your comment on after-sales service provided by LiuGong?
Earlier, the project ticket size was Rs 50 crore with a completion time of two years. Nowadays, with the completion time remaining the same, the ticket size is Rs 500 crore. As such, we are very particular about the quality of after-sales service provided by the vendor. LiuGong is good in this area. I think they will need to increase their service engineer strength.