Say govt move won’t hurt as they mostly make beacons for industrial use and red ones have negligible share
Even as the government on Wednesday announced banning of red beacon from all vehicles including that of PM and President, the industry stakeholders claim that the development will hardly have any effect on their business. Reason being that most manufacturers are into production of wide range of beacons, primarily for industrial uses, and red-beacons for vehicles remain just negligible part of it.
Further, the demand had already seen a dip following the Parliament attack in 2001. Five terrorist had gained entry into the Parliament using a car fitted with red beacon, killing six policemen and two para-military forces in the fire exchange. Number of people using these beacons had declined following a clamp down by authorities, say industry insiders, adding, the import of such beacons from countries like China and Taiwan further crashed the demand.
According to the industry sources, Grand, Lumax, Neolight and Kumar Auto Industries are some of the major companies involved in the production of beacons in the country.
Kumar Auto Industries spokesperson RK Nigam said the ban on red-beacon will have practically no impact on the industry as the demand was already non-existent. Also, the beacons have wide range of industrial and non-industrial uses that make for major chunk of their business. Upcoming metro rails, heavy industries including automobile sector, hospitals, etc., are some of the verticles driving current demand. In addition, just the colour and power voltage of the beacon is changed depending on the requirement.
"In such a demand scenerio, how does the ban on red beacons for VIP cars even matter?", said Nigam, explaining that the development is too minuscule to even matter to the industry.
Going by the industry estimates, Indian LED industry has been pegged at around Rs 2,000 crore. But how much of it forms share of the vehicle beacons cannot be ascertained considering the lack of available data, and because industry largely remains unorganised.
An executive from Chennai-based Siren and Electricals, a company involved in beacon business, said that they hardly get any orders for red-beacons of vehicles as it has a very specific use. When asked to put a total number to the sale of such red-beacons for beacons , the executive said, " Its hardly around 3-4 pieces a year".
According to the law enforcers, though there are strict guidelines under section 108 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 with regard to the usage of beacons over Indian vehicles, it regularly gets flouted across the country specially in small towns and cities. Only certain high dignitaries are allowed to use it on their official vehicle. However, the parameters for use depend from state-to-state.
NUMBERS INTACT
- Number of people using these beacons had declined following a clamp down by authorities, say industry insiders
- The import of such beacons from countries like China and Taiwan further crashed the demand
- The ban on red-beacon will have practically no impact on the industry, as the demand was already non-existent
- Just the colour and power voltage of the beacon is changed depending on requirement, says R K Nigam
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