Which are the current active projects of your company?
Currently we have two active projects in Bhutan. Also, recently we have been awarded some road projects such as the Eastern Periphery Road and the Gorakhpur road project. We have bid for more projects, but they are yet to be awarded to us.

Could you brief us about the range of construction/earthmoving equipment in your fleet? What is the fleet size of each category of equipment?
Practically we use most of the equipment and it is very difficult to provide our exact fleet size at present. However, I can give you an approximate number in each category (Refer to box for details).

These are the major equipment catering to the surface and underground needs. We also have various ancillary equipment and workshop equipment. All our sites are equipped with the necessary workshop facilities to attain the minor, major and overhauling of the equipment.

How much does LiuGong contribute to this equipment bank?
We first utilised the LiuGong equipment for one of our project sites, where earlier we were using Caterpillar side dump loaders. Then we learnt that LiuGong is also manufacturing similar type of equipment and the price was also competitive. So we brought them for our project and they proved to be good. The equipment cost was very competitive and the after-sales service was very good. So they proved to be very successful and later on we brought them for our other projects also. Satisfied with the performance, we bought the LiuGong loaders for our coal block projects to work in combination with the surface miners. The surface miners were mining the coal and the LiuGong loaders of 4.5 cu m were used for loading the coal in the trucks for transportation. We have recently bought the LiuGong excavators for our Bhutan project.

How has been your experience with all these various equipment manufacturers and at the same time with LiuGong?
In the heavy equipment category, we have done business with major players and recently with LiuGong. Our experience with all these manufacturers has been quite good and satisfactory. We have been requesting all the manufacturers to strengthen their after-sales service support. So that is our main expectation from the manufacturers. Our experience with LiuGong has been quite good and recently our relationship has strengthened. We hope that we strengthen our relationship further with LiuGong for our upcoming projects.

What made you choose LiuGong equipment?
Whenever we buy equipment, we thoroughly evaluate the technical characteristics of the equipment. We go through the past reference and we are very cautious while buying the equipment. We normally do not try to experiment with new equipment until and unless it has got a positive reference. So in LiuGong, whatever equipment we bought, has met our technical requirements. We have evaluated the aggregates fitted on the equipment like the engine, transmission and the under-carriage. After evaluating the technical application requirements and the price competitiveness being the best, we observed that LiuGong in techno-commercial terms was meeting our requirements.

Does that mean that LiuGong would be there in your future buying plans/decisions?
Yes, whenever some requirement is there and if we know that a particular manufacturer is capable of supplying, we send our enquiries to them and techno-commercial evaluation is done. If they meet the requirements, then we don?t hesitate in buying the equipment. We provide fair opportunity to all the manufacturers.

What is your advice to LiuGong in terms of their sales support, parts delivery, maintenance and after-sales service?
It is a very competitive market and competition is increasing. More manufacturers are coming into the limelight. So it is for the manufacturers to continuously upgrade the product and keep pace with the technology upgradation so that the customer gets the correct value of the equipment. Then they should not limit their duty to just selling the equipment. Actually they should own the equipment till its lifetime so that the customer derives the satisfaction that the manufacturer is not limiting his role to just selling of the equipment. They own the equipment; they are taking (note of) the requirement of all the expectations of the customer. The customer expects that his equipment should run in the optimum way, it should have minimum breakdowns, and the parts should be available at competitive cost. So after-sales service support, upgradation of the technology and promptness in the response, are to be met by the manufacturer. One has to continuously work on these parameters to see how one can continue to enhance skills to meet customer expectations, because customer expectations are more demanding. So they have to see how they can meet the demands of the customer.