Sachin Nijhawan, Mahindra Construction Equipment
Mr. Sachin Nijhawan,
Vice President and Business Head
RoadMaster G75: Revolutionizing Road Making in India
Mahindra’s RoadMaster G75 is a disruptive product in the motor grader segment that is set to change the way more than 90% of roads in India are being constructed
Road industry in India vis-a-vis developed countries
About 60% roads in developed nations are multi-lane expressways, national and state highways. The corresponding number for India is a meagre 6% or 2,56,749 kms across the length and width of the country.
Major district roads (MDR) / other district roads (ODR) constitute 30% road length in developed countries and 36% in India. Finally, Village roads (VR) and unsurfaced roads constitute 10% of the road length in developed countries, and a whopping 58% or 27,49,805 kms in India. Simply put, 95% of roads in India are small single to double lane roads, while a minuscule 5% are the larger ones, which require bulky machines for building and maintenance.
Most motor grader brands in India are either imports or from foreign manufacturers in developed nations, and are designed to suit the requirements of their home countries. These machines are simply brought and sold in India without understanding the ground realities or requirements of the Indian market.
Most motor graders sold in India are huge, expensive and grossly under-utilized, as the market for these machines is restricted to a few large players catering to this 5-6% of all roads in India. This oversight ensures that the sale and utilization of these machines is restricted to the big players and a very small market. For the 95% of the road building market, these machines prove to be too bulky and expensive for the size and budget of these roads, resulting in small sales volumes.
Made in India for Indian roads
However, the Mahindra RoadMaster G75 is designed and manufactured in India and for India. Over 20,000 man-days of product development, over 6,000 hours of extensive testing across the country in the most extreme working conditions, locations and applications, extensive one-year study of the road and road construction eco system in India, and inputs from customers, contractors, government officials and other entities involved in road construction, are the extensive and inclusive efforts that have gone into designing this disruptive machine, especially for Indian roads. RoadMaster G75 is manufactured at Mahindra’s state of the art manufacturing facility at Chakan, Pune.
More productive and cost effective
RoadMaster G75 is 180% faster, can single-handedly do the work of 30 labourers, has reduced construction cost, and higher operator comfort. When compared to conventional motor graders, it has 50% the productivity at 35% the product cost, and 40% the operating cost without compromising on the quality of work. Powered by the high-performing Mahindra DiTECH engine, it is designed to have the lowest maintenance and operating cost in its class, leading to increased productivity and profitability for the owners.
The RoadMaster comes with a 3000-mm blade that is perfect for construction and maintenance of small and medium roads, and is also suitable for expansion work of state and national highways. There is an option of reducing the blade size to 2600-mm by removing 200-mm of blade from each side. This feature is particularly useful when working on small roads with moving, ongoing traffic. The grader can be used to grade one side of the road first and then the other. The cutting edge of the blade is in four separate pieces for ease of handling and replacement. It is convenient, affordable, and any blade part can be easily replaced in case of damage.
Traditionally, for small roads, backhoe loaders and tractor graders have been used for road construction and for grading and levelling, since conventional graders are too huge and expensive. These machines, however, were not designed for this purpose, and make for a poor grading and levelling finish. On the other hand, the G75 provides a superior finish as compared to the finishing done by the backhoe loader and labourers, and saves 50% on the time required to get the job done (provided the material is available on site), and it saves at least 40% of the costs.
RoadMaster G75 is a registered motor grader than can be used against tender requirements. Its use will lead to better quality roads, faster project completions, and therefore better profit margins. Superior quality roads will mean less time, labour, and money spent on maintenance. Good quality work completed on time, will result in good credibility for the contractor, leading to more contracts by government officials and the locals.
As compared to tractor graders, Mahindra’s RoadMaster provides a superior Camber and super elevation finish, while doing 2.5 to 3 times more work. It comes with ripper and dozer attachment options that increases its versatility and scope of work.
Affordable pricing
With the affordable pricing of G75, even small and medium players will be able to comfortably enter the Road Construction market, which has been traditionally ruled by the larger players due to the cost-intensive nature of the venture. The RoadMaster is comfortably priced at almost one-third the cost of a conventional grader.
With a machine that now caters to 90% of the Road Construction market in India at an affordable price without compromising on quality and productivity, the road construction scenario in India is set to change for the better and at an unprecedented pace.
RoadMaster G75 has changed the way contractors look at road construction. The dynamics of the industry are about to be disrupted for good, as the Mahindra RoadMaster G75 is revolutionizing the ways roads are being made in India.
NBM&CW December 2017
