EXCON signals winds of change

The five-day CII EXCON, the biggest construction equipment meet in South Asia, held in-person after a two-year gap saw the participation by companies from India and abroad. An report by Shahkar Abidi highlighting the key trends and big growth drivers across the construction equipment segment.

The construction industry is on the verge of digitalization, and is expected to disrupt established procedures even as it offers countless opportunities," said G Sundararaman, senior VP & Head, Automation Solutions, Wipro Infrastructure Engineering. He made these remarks in his welcome address at the CII Excon 2021 which took place at Bengaluru last month.

Sundararaman said that going forward, artificial intelligence would facilitate efficiency across the whole value chain, from building materials production to design, planning, and construction. "The industry must ensure that it operates smoothly in order to complete any project on schedule, with high quality, and within budget," he emphasized. Dimitrov Krishnan, co-chairman of Excon, said "India's construction equipment industry, being the 3rd largest market in the world, has shown remarkable progress and we aim to become the second-largest CE market in the world."

The CII-Excon, which is a biennial event was initially planned for December 2021 but was postponed due to apprehensions of another Covid wave. The event location which was spread over 300,000 square meters of display area saw over 800 exhibitors from India and abroad take part including countries like Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, UAE, UK, and USA amongst others, the organisers said. The event also specialized sessions on alternate fuels, artificial intelligence, machine learning, equipment financing, skill development, participation of women in industry, MSMEs, digital transformation besides sustainability, and safety. amongst others. The event clocked over Rs 1,200 crore worth of business enquiries even as over 45000 visitors made beeline for the event, the organisers said.