What range of machines and services is the company providing and for which application areas?
We are serving the infra development and industrial capacity expansion needs of India through our three verticals: Warehousing & Multi-modal Transportation, Construction Equipment Rental, and Turnkey Infra-Project Execution.
Our large fleet of heavy capacity cranes, hydraulic piling rigs, and concrete construction machinery are deployed in major infra and industrial projects across the country, including Metro Rail Lines in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Indore, Kanpur, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur, Pune, and Surat.
The company is playing a pivotal role in the construction of the first ever Bullet Train of India under the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail project through our efficient andorganized services in Piling work.
Our dedicated team of experts and our young well-maintained fleet of equipment are serving sectors like Power, Oil & Gas, Steel, Cement, Renewable Energy, Urban & Rural Infrastructure development such as Roads, Bridges, Highways, Airports, Metros, Irrigation Projects, and Water Pipelines.
On the Steel Logistics front, our execution capacity is more than 5 Million MT of per annum. We are also an IBA-approved transporter. Our services have been bolstered by our strong relationship with our OEM partners, namely ACE, Mahindra, SANY, TATA, Volvo, XCMG, and Zoomlion.
What type of machines does you fleet comprise?
Our fleet has been meticulously planned to meet the changing demands of our clients’ needs. We have more than 250 machines that include cranes up to 800 MT capacity, with a good mix of Crawlers and All-Terrain Cranes, Rubber Tyre Gantry Cranes of 50-ton capacity, Hydraulic Piling Rigs ranging from 155 kilo-Newtons to 320 kilo-Newtons, and Concrete Equipment like Batching Plants and Mobile Boom Placers of up to 42 meters.
Our transportation activities are efficiently managed through our young fleet of trailers, heavy haulage pullers, and hydraulic axles of various capacities.
How is the company geared up to ensure speedy and reliable services while maintaining quality standards?
We focus on establishing and servicing long-term associations with our clients which include Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs), large Corporates, and MNCs. The illustrious list includes Steel Authority of India Limited, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam, ONGC, HPCL-Mittal Energy, Vedanta, JSW, Thyssenkrupp Industries, Larsen & Toubro, Tata Group, Afcons Infrastructures, Patel Infrastructure, SNC, MG Contractors, URC Construction, and the Aditya Birla Group.
Over the years, we have introduced various initiatives to train our team to meet the changing demands of our clients and their project teams. We have tied up with approved training institutes to ensure that all our machines are operated by certified operators only.
All our machines are subjected to frequent checks by Third Party Inspection agencies that ensure that the machine operations are working at optimal levels. As a unique measure, we have a tie-up with all our manufacturers for carrying out periodic visits and health check-ups of our machines, while also ensuring training to our operation and maintenance teams to keep them abreast of the latest techniques.
It is a policy in the company to use only genuine spare parts; this ensures lesser breakdowns and increased equipment lifetime. These initiatives along with introduction of technology in managing operations have helped us in improving our services and enhancing client satisfaction.
Demand for over dimension cargo (ODC) from infra and heavy engineering projects has increased manifold in the past few years; how are you positioning yourself to offer the best specialized transport services to these projects?
We have traditionally been in Steel Logistics for more than 35 years. Our service packages have focused on providing end-to-end solutions for managing all the processes leading up to doorstep deliveries. Moreover, our value-add services enable our clients to entrust us with the responsibility of handling the consignments at loading and unloading points.
Over the last few years, we have expanded our fleet by adding higher capacity pullers and hydraulic multi-axle trailers for serving our clients’ needs for ODC in infra and heavy engineering projects.
Our teams deliver packaged solutions to clients that include transportation of over-dimensional cargo, and onward launching/erection of the cargo at client site as per the client's project requirements. Our teams work with OEMs and client teams to better align our services to meet onsite demands efficiently. Our aim is to stand out as a specialized service and solution provider in this segment.
What are the company’s project management strategies and practices? Please give reference of a challenging project executed by TLS.
Our project management strategies are centered around the concept of speedy mobilization and most efficient utilization of resources, and to develop strategies that facilitate economic operational activities.
One of the most challenging projects undertaken by our team was the execution of the Turn Around Project of Guru Gobind Singh Refinery at Bathinda for our marquee client, HPCL-Mittal Energy Limited (HMEL). We were awarded the contract for Hiring of Mobile Cranes during Turnaround by HMEL, wherein we were to provide 19 Cranes of different capacities ranging from 40MT to 350MT from end of January 2021. To the best of our knowledge, this was the first time ever that a Single Company was to provide 19 cranes for such a critical project at the Refinery. Our challenges were compounded by the continued onslaught of the Covid-19 pandemic during this period. A key element of the order was our commitment of deployment of 6 Brand New cranes, but the arrival of these imported large capacity cranes was delayed by a month due to the pandemic. The management understood that we were racing against time and thus formed a task force with clearly defined responsibilities to ensure speedy clearance from customs, registration with relevant authorities, mobilization of the machines from Mumbai to Bathinda in Punjab and the finally, deployment of the machines inside the Refinery premises. To further counter the impact of the pandemic, the company made all efforts necessary to rally support to its ground force and the top management engaged with the client officials to introduce novel concepts as demanded by the situation. The engagement entailed special travel and accommodation arrangements for operating crew, earlier than anticipated mobilization of available machines, involvement of local authorities for proper and speedy RT-PCR testing and a constant motivation of the entire team to sail past the challenging time. Although we were initially delayed in fulfilling our commitment, but our team takes immense pride in having successfully executed the very critical Turn Around project of HMEL at Bathinda, despite the initial hiccups.
Which new markets are you targeting?
Our key focus area remains to provide solutions aimed at infrastructure development and industrial capacity expansion of the country. Our ground engineering and lifting solutions shall continue to cater to the increasing demand for organized solution providers in projects like Metro Lines, Railway Infrastructure, Highways and Bridges, along with industrial capacity expansions at Steel, Cement, Oil & Gas and Power sectors.
We have a presence in 20 states of the country with our key markets concentrated in the states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Tamil Nadu. In the current fiscal, our efforts will be to consolidate our position in these strong markets while exploring the Northern and North-Eastern states.
Going forward, we are keenly looking for opportunities to collaborate with like-minded entrepreneurs and companies (young and old), to expand our services in the execution of Civil and Mechanical Turnkey Projects. Our areas of interest for such collaborations are HAM & EPC projects in the Infra development space; and EPC contracts in the Industrial sector, especially Steel, Cement, Power, and Oil & Gas.
India’s economy is poised to achieve untethered growth over the next decade with numerous opportunities springing up across the geographical landscape of the country. At Tara Chand, we believe in following a pick-and-choose philosophy to invest in opportunities that would further the growth of our company, while delivering great value to all our stakeholders through our commitment to the infra development and industrial capacity expansion of our country.
