Tell us about the core competencies and strengths of Basic Engineering.
BEEPL is professionally managed company with experience in the process industry, which helps us to understand hot mix plant much better, resulting in better fuel efficiency, better pollution norms compliances and helps in maintaining the plant trouble-free. BEEPL has employed people who worked earlier in the process industry so, with their expertise, it is able to provide a much better service and efficient design plant.

The off-take of equipment has come down drastically during the past couple of years. What is the impact of this on Basic Engineering?
Definitely, the slowdown of 2013 has impacted us badly and the dollar appreciation against the rupee has resulted in a big drop in business, but we are slowly coming out of this problem by going in for more indigenous equipment in the plant. We are also introducing a coal burner for the hot mix plant which will result in great fuel efficiency.

What are the value-for-money propositions from Basic Engineering?
We provide a value-for-money plant. Even though the plant may be expensive in terms of absolutes, it is economical in operation and fuel efficiency, resulting in big savings in operation cost for the next 25 years when it comes to the life of the plant.

Tell us about the services offered by Basic Engineering.
The slowdown has made us more focused on servicing existing plants and have taken up the operation and maintenance of hot mix plants.

What is the overall market and demand-supply scenario for the product line that you deal with?
The overall market is very slow and we do not foresee much improvement in 2014, either.

Has the de-growth in the real estate segment impacted your business?
The real estate market has no impact on our business but the slowdown in infrastructure has impacted us to a large extent.

How do you assess the performance so far in 2013?
So far, 2013 has been very slow but we are trying to revive it by introducing new technology in hot mix plants and trying to bring down operating costs.

How do you look at the growth potential three years down the line?
We expect good growth from 2015 and we expect the market to boom for our plants from 2015 for the next ten years at least.

What are the challenges Basic Engineering faces?
Presently, we are faced challenges from our customers, as they have come under a severe debt burden and have stopped investing in new plants. Many projects are not progressing due to environmental clearances and unavailability of land for road-building. This has slowed down our growth also. But we expect things cannot continue this way very long, and we expect the government to act fast and clear the hurdles.