India will grow with the growing population

01 Jan 2015 Editorial Team

- Klaus Ertmer, Managing Director, Erkat

Germany-based Erkat has over 15 years of experience in the development, manufacture and application of rock-cutting excavator attachments. Erkat drum cutters are used in a wide variety of applications, including excavation, road building, mining, tunneling and trenching. Klaus Ertmer, Managing Director, and Tarun Kumar, Sales Manager, India, Africa, Middle East, Erkat, share more with SHRIYAL SETHUMADHAVAN.

Please introduce us to your offerings.
Kumar: Our products - drum cutters, auger drive units, exacters, etc - are attachments for excavators. Alternate methods are being explored when hard materials have to be cut. While the rock breaker came into India 20 years ago, drum cutters, which have been present in Europe for 10 years, were introduced seven to eight years ago. In India, we offer to customise products based on the customers´ requirement.

Any plans for a manufacturing unit in India?
Kumar: We import products as we do not have volumes here.

Ertmer: We plan to establish a trading company in India where we can produce product components, especially for railing products, and reduce import duty for the Indian market. We want to produce spare parts in Germany and welding parts in India. Depending on the development of the Indian economy and market, we should be able to establish ourselves in two years.

What kind of value-added service do you offer?
Kumar: Our product does not require any after-sales service. The main component, which is the gearbox, can run up to 20,000 hours without attention, and an average machine runs 2,000 hours a year. Hence, for 10 years, this equipment will not incur any major cost.

How much does India contribute to the overall Erkat business?
Ertmer: India contributes 7-8 per cent of our global business. But the country is moving and investment will be made in infrastructure development. India will grow with the growing population.

Infrastructure Transport

12 Mar 2026

Kavach 4.0 Commissioned on Delhi–Mumbai and Delhi–Howrah

"Kavach version four has been commissioned on 1,452 route km, covering the high density Delhi–Mumbai and Delhi–Howrah corridors. The rollout included laying 8,570 km of optical fibre, installation of 1,100 telecom towers, deployment of trackside equipment over 6,776 RKm and establishment of 767 station data centres. Trackside implementation has been taken up on 24,427 RKm covering Golden Quadrilateral, Golden Diagonal and High Density Network sections. The programme aims to strengthen signalling and train protection on key routes.Kavach is an indigenously developed automatic train protecti..

Railways Advance Kalyan–Murbad Line And Mumbai Capacity Expansion

"Indian Railways is advancing multiple rail infrastructure projects in Maharashtra, including the sanctioned Kalyan–Murbad new line and sizable investments under the Mumbai Urban Transport Project and the Mumbai–Ahmedabad High Speed Rail project. The Kalyan–Murbad 28 km new line has been sanctioned at Rs 8.36 billion (bn) on a 50:50 cost-sharing basis with the Government of Maharashtra and has been declared a Special Railway Project for land acquisition; proposals covering 214 hectares are at various stages of acquisition. Budgetary outlay for projects falling fully or partly in Maharash..

Parliamentary Panel Flags Funding Gaps in Heavy Industries

"The Department-Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Industry (Rajya Sabha) presented its 332nd report on the Demands for Grants 2026-27 of the Ministry of Heavy Industries (MHI). Figures converted from crore and lakh are expressed in million (mn). The Budget Estimates 2026-27 for the Ministry stand at Rs 79,399 mn against a projected requirement of Rs 94,843.2 mn, a shortfall of about 16 per cent, with revenue at Rs 79,370.8 mn and capital compressed to Rs 28.2 mn from Rs 5,020 mn.The committee flagged recurring BE-to-RE compression and declining revised estimate utilisation, and calle..