Interview of Chief Operating Officer, Kamal Coach, Mr Puneet Gupta
November 7, 2024
Founded in 1936 in Jaipur, Kamal Coach has been a pioneering force in manufacturing tippers, trailers, and tip trailers for India’s leading automobile manufacturers. Now, with ambitious plans to scale up its plant capacity tenfold through advanced automation, Kamal Coach is gearing up to meet the surging transportation needs across the country. In this edition of Stainless Post, Supriya Sundriyal from Corporate Communications speaks with the Chief Operating Officer, Kamal Coach, Mr Puneet Gupta, who shares insights on the significant role of stainless steel in enhancing stability and efficiency within the automobile industry
Can you please tell us something about yourself?
First of all, thank you for the kind introduction. Let me share a bit about myself. I come from a typical middle-class family, born and raised in Chandigarh, where I completed my schooling and later earned a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Kurukshetra University. With over 20 years of experience in the automobile industry, I began my career in the Design Department, which laid the foundation for a comprehensive understanding of this field. Currently, I am the Chief Operating Officer at Kamal Coach Works, where I oversee both the passenger and commercial vehicle segments across two plants.
Kamal Coach Pvt. Ltd. was founded in 1936 by the Kamal and Company Group, established by Late Shri Kamal Kasliwal. This diversified group operates across various sectors, with dealerships for brands like Audi, Honda, Hyundai, and Tata, as well as Bharat Benz for commercial vehicles. Kamal Coach, a key company within the group, began its fabrication journey in 1948 and has since served major automobile manufacturers, fleet owners, and government institutions. We operate two plants: our Niwai plant, focused on commercial vehicles like tippers and trailers, and our Jaipur plant, dedicated to passenger vehicles, including buses, ambulances, and special-purpose vehicles. Our major clients include Tata Motors, to whom we supply a range of products across both plants.
When I joined Kamal Coach in 2008, the company was primarily manufacturing city buses for Tata Motors. Over the years, we expanded our portfolio, introducing ambulances, tenders, tip trailers, and eventually offering a complete range of both commercial and passenger vehicles. In our commercial segment, we produce a range of tippers and trailers, from 1.8m³ to 40m³, catering to a broad spectrum of transportation needs.
Would you also like to share your future expansion plans?
Yes, we have very good future expansion plans. We have already started a new plant in Jaipur in Mahindra sets. It is dedicated to JCB. We started this plant as a supplier to JCB, then, seeking ongoing demand of bulk transportation in countries as infrastructure and highways are getting good day by day. We are committed to double our Niwai plant semi-trailer capacity by the financial year
2024-25. Again, coming to this Jaipur plant, we are planning to have a new bus plant with modern facility and automisation. This plant will give a significant milestone in the progress of the company, ensuring our design capability, our production capacity, and automisation.
Since you’ve been a part of the industry for so long, how have you seen the evolution of the industry?
See, the automobile industry plays a vital role in the economy of the World. So, the automobile industry has changed drastically. If we particularly talk about India in the last three decades, since 1991 when liberalisation took place. Till then, very few players were in the market providing automobile solutions. Nowadays, we have a choice for customers, a number of choices for customers with world-class options available. You see the automation, you see the transformation of industry through the things the industry has done, like electric starter in 1911 to cruise control automation, and now with electric and hydrogen fuel engines. So, the industry has changed drastically, particularly in India, where the last two decades were very important. The government has played a vital role in the standardisation of norms. With all these automations and standardisations coming, and electric and hydrogen fuel vehicles arriving, and automobile vehicles are incentivised by the government for doing RD. So as far as India is concerned, the automotive industry has transformed in the last two decades quite a lot.
Could you tell us about the research and development efforts underway at Kamal Coach?
See, as I said, our Niwai facility, if we talk about commercial vehicle plant, we have recently given 50 containers to CJ Darcl, one of our prestigious customers. These containers are all stainless steel, in association with Jindal Stainless. So these containers are lighter in weight and provide rigidity and stability. Since in automobiles, corrosion is the biggest factor which plays a role in the life of the vehicle. Since these vehicles are of stainless steel, the life of the vehicle is quite higher than the traditional mild steel one. We have also provided solutions to our customers, like Tanushree Transports, Shree transports, and CJ Darcl, for trailers also where we provide stainless steel as well as high tensile steel. So, Kamal Coach is committed to providing solutions to the transport industry with R&D and customer needs, to provide lighter vehicles with more rigidity and higher payload. And if we come to the bus plant, I just mentioned we have a plan for expansion of our bus plant, and we are coming up with the capacity of ten times bigger than this one, with automation and standardisation.
You mentioned stainless steel for CJ Darcl’s containers. What are other stainless steel applications at Kamal Coach, and why do you prefer it?
I told you that in the Niwai plant, we use stainless steel in containers and trailers. In the bus plant also, we use stainless steel, but in limited areas, like grab rails are provided in stainless steel, battery box, we provide in stainless steel. So, using stainless steel provides us more stability, more efficiency. And, we are in conversation with Jindal Stainless to convert our traditional mild steel structure of buses to stainless steel structures. This will help us in providing a lightweight solution to the customer and also meet the standardisation needs. Stainless steel is a product that is very energy efficient. And as I said, it’s a lighter and steady product. It gives steadiness and stability to our structure. And then it is corrosion resistant. It is about a 100 times more corrosion resistant than mild steel, so, better life. And also what I feel is, going forward when we are talking about electric vehicles, it plays a vital role because in electric vehicles, weight is a big concern because the weight of the battery is the dead weight which the vehicle is carrying. With a stainless steel structure, with more stability and rigidity, this problem can be overcome and the complete weight of the vehicle can be controlled.
When did your association with Jindal Stainless begin, and what do you think sets Jindal Stainless apart from the others?
Our association with Jindal Stainless started in 2017. We contacted Jindal Stainless for our need in door-to-door tipper garbage collectors. We had a weight concern there. The GVW (gross vehicle weight) of the vehicle was going up beyond the rated GVW. We contacted the Jindal Stainless team for a lightweight solution. And their technical team provided us with the solution with integrated material. This was the first time we used Jindal Stainless in our plant. Then again in 2018, we did some experiments and we did a pilot lot of trailers with Jindal Stainless. And we observed these trailers for two years. When our quality and design team gave clearance, we began substantially using Jindal Stainless steel in some of our products. Our team is in discussion with Jindal Stainless for trailers also. Our R&D team and Jindal Stainless’ technical team are doing some R&D for lightweight trailers on all the models and options available with us.
How do you envisage the partnership between Kamal Coach and Jindal Stainless? What does the future look like for both the companies?
See, as you said partnership, I also believe in business partnership. I don’t take Jindal Stainless as a vendor – customer relation. In case of Jindal Stainless, as our design team and their design team is interacting day by day, it’s more of like a business partnership. So, I think in the coming future, Jindal Stainless and Kamal Coach partnership will thrive the market and we will provide a lightweight solution, for buses as well as trailers with rigidity, stability and life cycle. So I think going forward, the partnership will go on for a very long term. And as I said, our new bus plant with ten times the capacity of our existing plant is in planning, so the requirement will be huge there and I think this partnership, is fruitful for both of us.
What is that one message or advice that you would like to give to them so that they can also create a positive impact on the society?
I will say, all the knowledge doesn’t come from the books. We get the knowledge from experience, dedication and hard work. And obviously, we have to be open minded for innovations. If we are open minded for innovation and we develop a product that impacts the society that is our success as an Engineer. So, maybe in the passage of doing so, some failures are there, but, don’t be afraid of failures that will teach us as a lesson. So, my advice is go for innovations. Don’t stop at one or two places, one or two innovations. Go for the future. Think of how the future will be, and the future product you can provide to the society. This is the thing that I learned from my parents, and now providing this wisdom to future engineers.
