“TIL has made its mark as manufacturer of cranes and distributor of Caterpillar construction and mining equipment for more than a decade of its existence,” says Partha Pratim Basistha during a visit to TIL’s headquarter in Kolkata and having interaction with senior functionaries of TIL.

The history of Kolkata-based Tractors India Limited (TIL) dates back to the year 1944, when the company was established to manufacture cranes. Since then, TIL has strived to establish itself both as a manufacturing entity for cranes meant for construction, industrial and port cargo handling application on one end and being distributors of Caterpillar’s construction equipment products on the other end till date.

Mr. S.K Bhatnagnar,President , Materials Handling Division of TIL
“The entity of TIL has been of an amalgam since its inception,” points out Mr. S.K Bhatnagnar,President, Materials Handling Division of TIL looking into manufacturing and distribution of cranes. He adds, “throughout the year of its existence TIL has brought in newer technologies for manufacturing the products and simultaneously strengthening the distribution arm for promoting Caterpillar products on a sustainable basis.”

During its beginning years, TIL was the distributor of Coles mobile cranes of U.K. Later, Coles was taken over by Grove, the largest US crane manufacturer. And it has been till now that Grove has remained the prime technology partners of TIL enabling the latter manufacture cranes for customized applications for infrastructure and core industry. The present CEO of TIL is Sumit Mazumder.

TIL Product Range and Manufacturing Facilities
TIL manufactures cranes at the range of 5 –100 tonnes and claims to have a market share of 75 to 80 percent in R.T.G and hydraulic mobile cranes. The cranes are manufactured at its plants in Kolkata, Sahibabad near Delhi and at Pondicherry with state-of-the art manufacturing facilities. The purpose built plants are equipped with computer based design, CNC control etc. The manufacturing system conforms to ISO-9001 standards.

The range of cranes manufactured at its plants consist of mobile cranes for industrial applications at the range of 8 tonnes to 20 tonnes, truck mounted cranes having capacity range of 30 to 40 tonnes. In addition to these, rough terrain mobile cranes beginning from the range of 20 to 80 tonnes, reach stackers for port container cargo handling operations at the capacity of 8 to 45 tonnes are also manufactured. The other high capacity mobile cranes for rough terrain manufactured by TIL consists at the range of 20 to 300 tonnes. TIL also makes truck mounted loader cranes at the capacity range of 2.65 tonnes to 36.0 tonnes Product range from TIL also includes, aerial work platforms, safety systems and crawler cranes.

The new products of TIL comprises of defense logistic vehicles, rubber tyred gantry cranes and electric level luffing cranes.

TIL’s cranes are equipped with hydraulic mode load sensing systems for providing more hydraulic power to the cranes and also in concurrence assisting the cranes consume less fuel. The cranes have powerful weight lifting capacity as being equipped with technically improved booms, says Bhatnagar.

Having the cranes equipped with advanced technology enables TIL to have a product USP and in turn derive a competitive edge in the market. He adds, “altogether the brand TIL draws its USP from its ability to manufacture cranes for customised applications.”

Sustained adoption of advanced technologies has been the operational criterion of TIL. This in true sense has enabled the Company to sustain in the market for long and carve a niche for itself as a reputed manufacturer of cranes.

The Company at present is in the process of executing orders of sizeable numbers of 30–40 mobile cranes for Reliance’s upcoming greenfield Jammnagar refinery at its Kolkata manufacturing unit. The cranes would be required for undertaking construction of the refinery for lifting construction materials and equipment. The supply for the cranes would be completed till the year 2008.

TIL’s Procurement Policy
TIL procures components from globally renowned companies. The axles are sourced by TIL from Kessler, Germany. Engines are sourced from Volvo and Caterpillar. The hoist units for the cranes are procured from Poccard and Braden of US, both are suppliers to Caterpillar. The hydraulic motors are procured from Bosch, Germany, while the automated programme controller for lifting applications in cranes is from Japan. Components are also sourced from France by TIL.

Mr. Bhatnagar mentions, “procuring key components from globally acclaimed vendors enables us to maintain high quality standards in our final products, at par with our global counterparts.” He clarifies further, “the reason behind procuring important components from abroad is because there is deficient number of quality vendors at home.”

Though TIL is trying hard for import substitution but it has met with little success as of now with only engines of truck cranes being fitted with Ashok Leyland engines.

The Company is positive towards the demand forecast of cranes for various applications. But it forecasts a large volume of demand for cranes would come from the construction sector alone.

He explains, “With thrust to finish projects fast especially that inpower, refinery and pipeline projects heavy capacity cranes in particular, would have an important role to play by lifting heavy items at a faster pace. This is a factor which is being well understood by the construction industry and it would be an important criteria which would drive the demand of cranes from the construction sector in a large way adds Mr. Bhatnagar.”

Cranes from TIL


TIL’s Sales Synergy
The Company has been the distributor of Caterpillar’s construction equipment and mining products for the last 61 years. This is in addition being successfully promoting its own products.

The dealership tie up of TIL with Caterpillar goes back to the year of the formers inception and this has gone from strength to strength over the years,” asserts Mr. Subrata Paul, President, Construction Equipment Division of TIL, looking after the sale and distribution of Caterpillar products.

TIL is looking after the distribution of Caterpillar products in East and North-Eastern India, Nepal, Bhutan, and Myanmar. And an important construction project where CAT construction equipment are under use in the North-East India is Subhansiri hydro project in Assam undertaken by Punj Lloyd.

Though the basic collaboration arrangement of the tie up of TIL with Caterpillar has remained the same but in order to meet the emerging changing requirements of the market certain amount of fine tuning is being carried out in the collaboration. As per this, the amount of training has been enlarged by Caterpillar to TIL engineers for better marketing and serviceability of the products.

To strengthen the collaboration arrangement, TIL is setting up a new workshop at Asansol in West Bengal for servicing Caterpillar products.

Mr. Subrata Paul, TIL
Mr. Subrata Paul informs that to consolidate the tie up, TIL would be further providing more emphasis on its customer support systems for better promotion of CAT products. The area of TIL’s customer support includes, equipment investment analysis, on site services, availability of engineers on call, complete equipment rebuild, operation and maintenance and preventive maintenance through annual maintenance contacts.

For better marketing of the products TIL with assistance of Caterpillar would be providing thrust in organising road shows. With greater strengthening of the tie up TIL would be providing emphasis for marketing varied range of CAT products particularly those having potential for the Indian markets in a bigger way.

According to this, Mr. Paul informs with large number of road projects coming up there is a potential for road construction equipment. Taking this into consideration, TIL would give focus in promoting paving equipment, motor graders, asphalt and vibratory soil compactors etc. Emphasis would also be given in promoting wheel loaders of various capacity, 20–30 tonnes excavators, pipe layers, track loaders.

Through better tie up arrangement, it is expected that TIL would be able to promote assorted range of equipment from CAT’s stable in a better way in the market for the time to come.
Everything is Possible Through Hard Work
BRO has been at the forefront of adopting the latest technologies, which are both environment-friendly and cost-effective, and have resolved many construction problems, while facilitating speedy execution of projects. The organisation has not only constructed

Read more ...

Why India is an Important Market for TEREX
Terex enjoys a strong brand recall in India’s construction equipment market, especially in crushing and screening, pick and carry cranes, and the more recent solutions for waste recycling. John L. Garrison, Chairman of the Board, President & CEO, and Kieran

Read more ...

Escorts-Kubota - Ready to Showcase Its Strengths to the World
Sanjeev Bajaj, Chief Executive, Escorts-Kubota discusses with S.A.Faridi, the synergy that the joint venture between India’s multinational conglomerate Escorts Limited and the renowned Japanese Company Kubota Corporation will bring to India’s construction

Read more ...

SROT: Indigenizing Production
Yusuf A S Inamdar, Director - Industry, SROT, and Regional Business & Technical Head, J Kumar Infraprojects Ltd, throws light on how the SROT Incubation centre, which is a vital step towards achieving an Atmanirbhar Bharat, will help budding entrepreneurs

Read more ...

Neptune innovates artificial sand, green sand & artificial aggregates
We have four major divisions within Neptune: our Building Material and Construction Technology Division focuses on building construction materials. We are a leader in fly ash brick plants, concrete block and paver manufacturing plant, CSE brick plants, red

Read more ...

Everest Engineering Equipment - Catering to Mega Infra Construction Projects
Everest Engineering Equipment, exclusive distributor of GJJ passenger hoists and platforms in India, has grown tremendously with many new customers and repeat buyers. Discussing the company’s expansion plans, PV Ramdev, Managing Director, informs

Read more ...

Arihant Panel Fittings: Meeting Demand for Quality Products
We are providing customised products and innovative solutions by constantly investing in R&D to come up with new designs and technologies. Mahendra Jain, Director. Arihant is meeting demand for products such as quarter turn locks, compression locks

Read more ...

GMMCO: Providing a Seamless Experience to Customers
Gmmco Ltd., a part of the 2.9 billion dollar diversified CK Birla Group, is keeping up the Group’s legacy of helping build the India of tomorrow by offering world-class and innovative solutions for infrastructure and mining. V Chandrashekar, Managing

Read more ...

Moteurs Baudouin
We are fully geared up with the technological advancements required to meet the CPCB IV+norms with our flexible and dependable power solutions. Gurunath Kulkarni. For over 100 years, Baudouin has been designing the highest quality diesel and gas engines for

Read more ...

Builders Association of India: Bridging the Gaps
Nimesh Patel, President, BAI & Managing Director, Maruti Infrastructure Limited, discusses the challenges and issues faced by the construction and real estate industries of India; why BAI is propagating a Unified Standard Contract Document, and how the

Read more ...

Volvo CE India: Designing Machines to Give Power & Precision
Volvo machines are 10-15% more fuel efficient, they comply with CEV IV emission norms, and can run on alternative eco-friendly fuels such as biodiesel. We lay strong emphasis on operator training for efficient use of every machine that we sell, avers Dimitrov

Read more ...

Tata Hitachi India: Developing Indigenous High-Tech Machines
To serve the Indian infra development sector more industriously, we will continue to undertake extensive R&D and introduce machines with high-tech features, cost-effective solutions, high performance, and fuel efficiency, avers Sandeep Singh, Managing

Read more ...

L&T: Industry Leading Initiatives & Achievements
Arvind K Garg, Senior Vice President and Head, L&T Construction & Mining Machinery, enumerates the technologies and products introduced by Komatsu and L&T, the company’s extensive customer service programs, and proactive skill development initiatives which

Read more ...

ACE: Electrifying the Industry
Sorab Agarwal, Executive Director, informs that the company is set to become India’s first ‘swadeshi’ manufacturer of electric construction equipment with the launch of a fully electric mobile crane, whose technology has been developed indigenously at their

Read more ...

Terex: Strengthening Foothold Across India
Jaideep Shekhar, Managing Director, Asia & EMEAR, informs that the company will continue to strengthen its foothold in the Indian market by bringing in new technologies, expanding its product portfolio, and entering new construction territories. Its aim is to

Read more ...

Schwing Stetter India: Formulating Plans to Adapt to Demand Trends
V.G.Sakthikumar, Managing Director, informs that since sustainability is an integral part of the company, they are pursuing collaborations and R&D to bring innovative solutions, increase usage of green energy in its facilities, and reduce carbon

Read more ...

Escorts Kubota: Prioritizing Customer Benefits
Sanjeev Bajaj, Chief Executive, Escorts Kubota Limited, is confident that 2023-24 will be a great year for the CE business and demand may be more than the current capacity, largely led by domestic consumption due to the infra push by the Government before the

Read more ...

Puzzolana Group: Increasing Operational Efficiencies
Abhijeet Pai, President, informs that the company’s wide ranging value-added services for its customers has positioned it as a total solution provider in the Crushing & Screening Industry. The focus at bauma this year will be on M-sand, aggregates, railway

Read more ...

Sany India: In Sync With Changing Trends
Dheeraj Panda, Chief Operating Officer - Sales, Marketing & Customer Support, Sany India, informs that the company has taken a significant step forward towards sustainability with its B-V biodiesel machines, and is also testing electric technologies for

Read more ...

CRCHI: Making Tunnel Construction Smarter & Safer
CRCHI is positioned in world markets as a large enterprise with a strong focus on research, design, and manufacturing of customized underground engineering and rail transit equipment, informs Song Shuang, Vice Managing Director, Overseas

Read more ...