How BEML plans to gain an edge over China in building India's tunnel-boring machines | Decoded
India's growing appetite for underground infrastructure has opened up an opportunity for domestic engineering companies to challenge foreign suppliers of tunnel-boring machines (TBMs). State-owned BEML Ltd is looking to capitalize on this demand by developing indigenous machines and reducing the country’s dependence on imports, particularly from China.
The company intends to begin with smaller machines used in metro rail, hydropower, irrigation and water projects before moving into larger equipment, BEML Chairman and Managing Director Shantanu Roy told Bloomberg.
The strategy is to build domestic technological capabilities rather than simply assemble equipment sourced from overseas. Here is how BEML plans to approach the opportunity and the challenges it faces.
BEML does not plan to enter the market by competing straightaway in the largest and most technically demanding category of TBMs.
Instead, it will initially focus on machines with diameters ranging from 3.5 metres to 6.5 metres. These are commonly used in urban transit and utility projects and represent a smaller segment of the market.
The approach could allow BEML to establish its capabilities in a relatively narrower part of the industry before expanding into more complex equipment.
For perspective, the TBMs being used to excavate the Mumbai section of India's first bullet-train corridor have cutter heads measuring around 13.6 metres in diameter. Germany's Herrenknecht AG manufactured these machines at its facility in China, Bloomberg reported.
A key part of BEML's strategy is to develop its own technology rather than rely on imported components and assembly kits.
Roy told Bloomberg that the company intends to build proprietary technology, with the intellectual property remaining in India.
BEML is also bringing on board a global consultant to support its plans to develop the machines.
This distinction is important to the company's ambition of reducing import dependence. Assembling equipment sourced from overseas may create domestic manufacturing activity, but developing proprietary technology would give the company greater control over the product and its technological capabilities.
Roy said the company had already worked out its plans for the venture.
India's dependence on foreign suppliers of construction equipment has grown as the country steps up infrastructure spending.
China's recent tightening of export controls on certain categories of construction equipment has further highlighted the risks of relying on overseas suppliers.
However, Roy told Bloomberg that BEML's plans were already under way before the latest restrictions, indicating that the company sees a longer-term opportunity in domestic manufacturing.
India's experience in other strategic manufacturing sectors also illustrates the difficulty of replacing imports.
The country's rare-earth magnet programme, for instance, was approved after Beijing restricted exports of certain materials and technologies. Yet India continued to import high-performance neodymium magnets as of July because it lacked industrial-scale facilities to convert rare-earth materials into metals, alloys and finished magnets, according to the Ministry of Heavy Industries.
Solar manufacturing offers another example. India has built a large solar-module manufacturing industry but remains dependent on imports for several upstream materials and equipment, according to government policy and industry studies cited in the Bloomberg report.
These examples underscore the challenge BEML will face: building an indigenous TBM industry will require more than manufacturing capacity alone. It will also need technological expertise and the ability to develop machines that can compete with established foreign products.
BEML's plans are supported by the expected expansion of India's tunnelling market.
The country is investing in metro networks, railways, hydropower projects, irrigation systems and strategic road infrastructure. Projects along the Himalayan frontier with China also require extensive tunnelling because of the difficult terrain.
Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari has said that India aims to invest up to $9.6 billion in tunnelling projects over the next five years.
Roy estimates that India's TBM market could grow by around 12% annually over the next seven to eight years, approximately twice the projected pace of the global market.
For BEML, this expected demand could provide an opportunity to establish a domestic presence in a market currently served by overseas manufacturers.
Despite its ambitions, BEML's TBM venture is still in its early stages. The company estimates that it would need around 22 months to deliver its first machine after securing a contract.
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