Sanjay Verma, Group CEO, Mtandt Rentals Limited
How has the equipment rental market for construction and infrastructure sectors evolved in India? What are the new and emerging requirements?
Rental has moved from being a stop-gap to being a procurement strategy. A decade ago, contractors hired only when their own fleet was committed elsewhere. Today, mid-sized and large engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) companies are deliberately going asset-light, capital goes into the order book rather than into machines that sit idle between projects. Even so, rental penetration in India remains under 10 per cent of equipment usage against 40–60 per cent in mature markets, which tells you how much runway is still ahead of us.
What has changed most is what the customer asks for. Fifteen years ago the conversation began and ended with the daily rate. Today it is about uptime commitment, certified operators, inspection records, telematics data and whether we can mobilise to a site in Guwahati or Nagpur within 48 hours. On metro, airport, data centre and industrial projects, a machine breakdown is a schedule risk, not an inconvenience. The emerging requirements we are building for are electric and low-emission machines for indoor and occupied environments, specialised access such as spider lifts for uneven or confined ground, and single-source supply across equipment categories under one compliance framework.
What are your key focus areas? What are the key offerings?
We are a work-at-height and access specialist rather than a general equipment renter, and that focus defines everything we do.
Our fleet, the largest MEWP fleet in the country, spans scissor lifts, articulated and telescopic boom lifts, spider lifts, vertical mast lifts and truck-mounted platforms, supported by aluminium scaffolding, mini crawler cranes, material handling equipment and ground protection mats. Through the group, customers can also access tower cranes, hoists and mast climbing platforms, which means an entire access and lifting package can come from one accountable partner.
Equally important is what surrounds the machine. We provide trained operators, work-at-height and MEWP operator training, telematics-based fleet monitoring, preventive maintenance and round-the-clock service support. We also invest in application engineering — helping customers identify the machine that genuinely suits the working envelope, rather than simply supplying what was asked for. Our customers span infrastructure, data centres, warehousing, power and renewables, oil and gas, manufacturing and facility maintenance, across India and in neighbouring and Middle East markets.
What are the key gaps that you see in the area of safety at construction worksites? What needs to change across contractors, equipment suppliers and regulators to bring safety standards closer to global benchmarks?
The fundamental gap is that work at height is still treated as a PPE problem rather than an access problem. A harness protects a worker after a fall has begun; the right platform prevents the fall. Improvised scaffolds and ladders used as working positions remain far too common. Second, the access method is usually decided at site level after the schedule and budget are frozen, so the cheapest option wins. Third, there is no mandatory competency certification for MEWP operators in India, and no national record of who is qualified to operate what. Fourth, there is no enforced regime of periodic third-party examination for access equipment, so machines of unknown condition stay in circulation. Finally, we have no credible national data on falls from height and what is not measured cannot be managed.
Change has to come from all three sides. Contractors should plan and price access at the tender stage, and insist on rescue plans and pre-use inspection. Suppliers must sell competence, not only iron, and decline work where equipment or site conditions are unsafe. Regulators now have a genuine instrument in the OSH Code, in force since November 2025. Making operator certification and third-party equipment inspection mandatory, and linking demonstrated safety compliance to tender eligibility on public projects, would move standards faster than exhortation ever will.
What are the biggest challenges currently facing the equipment rental industry? What policy or industry-level interventions could help address them?
Cash flow is the most serious structural problem. Rental receivables routinely run 90 to 180 days, while the goods and services tax (GST) falls due on invoicing rather than collection, so a rental company ends up financing both the asset and its customer’s working capital. Levying GST on a receipt basis for rental services would release capital immediately. A security-of-payment mechanism for the construction chain, and linking completion certificates on public projects to the settlement of vendor dues, would address the root cause.
Second, the market is fragmented and competes almost entirely on rate. An operator who does not maintain machines, train people or carry adequate insurance can quote well below one who does, which effectively penalises compliance. Mandatory registration and certification of equipment would correct that imbalance.
Third, financing. Rental is capital-intensive and fully asset-backed, yet is not recognised as an infrastructure-linked activity for lending, so our cost of capital is higher than the risk profile warrants.
Fourth, skills. Trained operators and technicians are in short supply, and industry-recognised certification pathways supported by government skilling programmes would help close that gap.
What do you see as key growth drivers for your business? What will be key priorities over the next few years?
Sustained public capex underpins demand, but the more interesting growth is coming from data centres, GCC campuses, warehousing, electronics and semiconductor plants and renewables, customers who arrive with global EHS standards already written into their contracts. Maintenance and facility management is emerging as steady, less cyclical demand: once an asset exists, it has to be accessed safely for its entire life.
Our priorities are straightforward. First, fleet expansion and modernisation, with a clear tilt towards electric and hybrid machines and specialised units such as spider lifts. Second, depth of network, branches, yards and service capability in tier-2 and tier-3 locations, because that is where the next wave of projects will be built. Third, digital: telematics, remote monitoring, predictive maintenance and transparent booking. Fourth, training capacity at scale. Our market can only grow as fast as the country’s pool of people competent to work at height, and we intend to keep expanding that pool every year.