New Delhi, Nov 25 (PTI) Earthmoving and construction equipment manufacturer JCB India on Wednesday said it is witnessing 'green shoots' driven by activities in rural India, with a gradual recovery from the coronavirus induced disruptions earlier this year.

The company, which on Wednesday launched its dual fuel CNG backhoe loader, said it is witnessing 10 per cent higher equipment utilisation at present as compared to the same period last year.

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"We have seen green shoots, positive recovery, but as we always remind ourselves we are still in the midst of the pandemic," JCB India CEO and Managing Director, Deepak Shetty, told reporters in an interaction.

He was responding to a query on the company's experience during the COVID-19 induced disruptions, the current situation and the future outlook.

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"We are cautiously optimistic about growth going forward, particularly because of the government's focus on infrastructure side, investments on Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) and healthcare which are being focussed upon," he added.

Such investments should stand the industry in good stead along with investments on road projects and expressways, Shetty added.

While the months of March and April were challenging, Shetty said,"Since then we have seen traction and we have seen further traction during the festive season.

"We expect those to continue but we are still on wait and watch as we are still one-and-half months away to complete the year. Market has reduced compared to last year but the green shoots that we are seeing are very encouraging."

When asked about the levels of equipment utilisation, he said,"Yes, the recovery is not only at the pre-COVID level but is around 10 per cent higher than the utilisation in the same period last year. Certainly it has gone above the pre-COVID level."

Stating that the rural segment is driving the recovery, Shetty said,"There is a lot of traction in rural India. It is a great story about what is happening in 'Bharat', particularly in the use of machines in small projects, including rural roads, ponds and part of PMGSY."

"One of the advantages we have is that we have 1,60,000 machines which are connected with us on the telematics platform. During the midst of lockdown we started seeing a lot of utilisation in the rural area. Step by step we saw improvement in utilisation in rural areas. We saw some green shoots early on in June and July. August and September have been pretty steady and even October has been good."

The company has witnessed good traction from its "major account customers" who have worked on roads in the last couple of months, he added.

Commenting on the company's dual fuel backhoe loader, which can operate on CNG and diesel simultaneously using the HCCI (Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition) technology, Shetty said not only will it help in reducing emissions but will also help customers save over Rs 1 lakh in a year compared to the conventional model.

He said new equipment will also be exported to countries with gas-based economies.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)