siliconindia | | December 20188IN MY OPINIonELEVATOR & ESCALATOR INDUSTRY & THE CHANGING DYNAMICSBy Ashok Ramachandran, CEO - India & South Asia, Schindler IndiaHeadquartered in Mumbai, Schindler India is a subsidiary of the Schindler Group which is one of the world's leading provider of elevators, escalators, and moving walks.I ndia is the second largest elevator market in the world after China, with more than 50,000 elevators being sold every year. The elevator & escalator market growth is mainly driven by the residential segment and by the ac-tivity and initiatives in Tier-2 & Tier-3 cities. It is likely to get even stronger in the near future, with the focus on initiatives like `housing for all', development of smart cit-ies & new infrastructure projects. This creates a need for taller buildings with even more efficient and innovative mobility solutions.Today, elevators are lifelines of all buildings. The im-portant factor here is to plan for the correct number and the right specifications of elevators, considering the type of building, its tenancy, population and so on. Planning plays a crucial role because once the elevators are installed, it is extremely difficult to change, or add more elevators without making substantial changes to the building structure. In the elevator and escalator space, it is also important to bring innovative technologies to its customers. Emphasis should also be given to end user comfort and safety. For this, timely and real-time monitoring of equipment are the essence via regular checks to prevent break-downs, and if it does occur, the financial liabili-ty to the customer is minimal.Newer technologies are generally associated with higher costs, but that is not always true. Most of the new gen technologies aim to reduce customer costs either tangi-bly or intangibly in the short or long run. With technolog-ical advancement, products are getting smaller, comfort is getting better and costs are getting lower. If we can show-case the same to the customer and explain how exactly it Ashok Ramachandran
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