Road construction sector on the path of recovery

Industry players feel that the road construction sector is on the path to recovery with the government announcing new norms for road development. It is learnt that the improvement in the project award and execution has caused a sudden surge in demand for construction machinery, building material machines, mining machines and construction vehicles. The rise in demand is reflected in the high demand for participation in an upcoming fair. The international trade fair of construction industry -bC India - a Bauma Conexpo show- is scheduled from Feb 5 to 8 in Mumbai. Reports suggest that the construction industry is looking at making up for lost time with a flow of funds and EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) contracts in 2012. Around 700 exhibitors and over 40,000 trade visitors from around the world are expected to participate in the show as against 508 companies and 25,000 trade visitors last year. It is learnt that the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) awarded new projects under the public-private partnership and project execution has picked up compared to last year. The NHAI awarded about 4,375 km of roads in the first nine months of 2012 as against 4,553 km in 2011, 3,338 km in 2010 and 643 km in 2009. The third quarter of 2012 saw awarding of 1,898 km of projects.