Kolkata: India could play a potential role and can also become self-reliant with regard to EPC in the next few years, opined Srinivash Singh, Managing Director, McNally Bharat Engineering Co Limited.
Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) organised a conference virtually to hold the 2nd Edition of Products and Services for EPC and Turnkey Projects in the presence of Srinivash Singh, Managing Director, McNally Bharat Engineering Co Limited, Manoj Chakraborty, MD, ECS Consultants Pvt Ltd, Pankaj Karmakar, Director, Icon Engineers Pvt Limited, Amitabha Sur, Director operation, Aircon (I) Ltd, Pallob Kar, National Sales Manager, Greenheck Ltd, Prateek Dutta Ray, Chief Engineering Manager, L&T Ltd, Sushantjit Dey, Deputy Director, ICC, and Dr. Rajeev Singh, Director General, ICC.
Speaking on the event, Srinivash Singh said, “After the pandemic many nations who used to depend on China are now looking for different options with regards to EPC. India could play a potential role and can also become self reliant with regard to EPC in the next few years. In order to become a 5 trillion-dollar economy, industrialization is important and for industrialization EPC contracts should be very transparent and not one sided.”
Manoj Chakraborty, while stressing on the importance of technology, said, “The role of EPC contract is of major importance while adopting the right technology and resources for turnkey projects. A company taking EPC contract should have various engineering strengths for proper completion of the project. Also, EPC will be fruitful for bigger projects with engineering backgrounds.”
Pankaj Karmakar said, “In India most of the supply side systems are not of the potential which can supply very high voltage output. Voltage problem in a project will lead to different wear and tear issues and the supply side will get affected, which also will lack quality. However, I am optimistic that in the coming 10-15 years India will be in a better position regarding this.”
Amitabha Sur, talking about the challenges, said, “Today every project execution has challenges. Thus, time, cost and quality aspects should be kept in mind during the execution of the project. There should be no discrimination among the various stakeholders in order to complete a project successfully. An integrated approach should also be followed where the stakeholders should start working together from ‘day zero’.”
Pallob Kar, while talking about the various perspectives on quality, said, “Quality includes the manufacturing perspectives, customer requirements, employee involvement in EPC projects. Thus, we must strive to achieve perfection by continuously improving the business and production processes in Turnkey projects.”
Prateek Dutta Ray focused on the importance of Request for Proposal (RFP) under EPC contracts and emphasised that all guidelines should be properly laid down in an EPC contract. He said, “Chambers like ICC can ensure that all EPC contracts follow the laid down guidelines. The key contracts that have already been executed globally and nationally should be used as a role model for crafting future contracts for projects. Lastly, a key and crucial aspect to digital contract is adapting to digital technology where a digital twin of the original project can be handed over to the client.”
Dr. Rajeev Singh said, “Today, global economy is struggling with high energy costs and different geo-political issues but the outlook for India for the coming years looks promising. The “GatiShakti” scheme undertaken by the Union Government tries to synergies different Ministries into one platform. For schemes like “GatiShakti” EPC and turnkey projects are likely to play a crucial role.”
