Demand for new crushers and screens is being driven by upcoming road infrastructure projects in India, writes Partha Pratim Basistha.
The Indian government has started awarding fresh road contracts as well as kick-starting stalled projects, following the “tardy” release of contracts a few years back.
The upcoming business opportunities have seen the new owners of crushers taking up contract crushing for the main contractors on a large scale.
Jalgaon-based Sairaj Developers in the western Indian state of Maharashtra is among one of those new owners who have entered the contract crushing business with new crushers, ready to supply aggregates needed for the road projects.
Formed two years ago, the company has acquired a new
It also operates a Kleemann track-mounted MCO 9 EVO cone crusher and MS 16D EVO track-mounted screening plant.
Meanwhile, Sairaj Developers’ new Mobicat MC 110 Z EVO crusher will be used to produce granular sub-base material for the four-laning of National Highway-9 between Solapur and Hyderabad, covering Maharashtra state and Andhra Pradesh in southern India.
Larsen & Toubro (L&T) is the main Indian contractor for the project.
The project road is 280km long, and its total requirements are of 3.5 million tonnes of (GSB) material for the entire stretch. Sairaj has been awarded the crushing contract by L&T to supply between 500,000-800,000tonnes of material.
The jaw crusher will take feed material of between 0-550mm, sourced from the project site, and during its 18 months at the site it will deliver 150tonnes of 0-65-75mm crushed aggregates/hour in accordance to the requirements of the contractor.
“Presently we are using the jaw crusher between 300-400 hours/month, meeting the requirement of L&T. As the project picks up, we will scale up production,” says Sagar Deshmukh, CEO, Sairaj Developers.
“As a precondition to buying the unit, we asked Wirtgen India to prove the crusher’s performance by running it for 350 hours. The crusher was able to deliver the exact required volumes of crushed aggregates, as per technical specifications, given by Kleemann, of between 145-190tonnes/hour, convincing us to buy it. The other deciding factor behind going for the crusher was its initial cost.
“The jaw crusher is able to deliver a similar output to a cone crusher. As a result, with a single-stage unit we will be able to minimise our labour costs,” says Mr Deshmukh.
“Further, by cutting down second stage, we will be able to reduce our fuel and maintenance costs as well.”
Based on the performance of the jaw crusher, Sairaj Developers says it will buy one additional unit, a Kleemann horizontal shaft impactor, capable of producing 350tonnes/hour.
It has bagged another recent order from Indian road contractor IRB for four-laning National Highway -211 between Sholapur and Aurangabad in western India. The equipment will be used to supply 600,000tonnes of GSB for the project. The entire stretch of the project will be 398km.
The new Kleemann horizontal shaft impactor will join Sairaj’s
