Not quite ready. Ammann India’s MD, Dheeraj Panda, just dropped a reality check: we’re assembling road equipment, but still importing the heart of it; hydraulic pumps, engine injectors, components that need a tolerance of thousandths of an inch. PLI has boosted electronics. But in construction equipment? Not so much. Why? Because real manufacturing isn’t just slapping ‘Made in India’ on a chassis. It’s designing, engineering, and sourcing every critical part domestically; something India’s still catching up on. The West Asia crisis didn’t just affect oil prices; it paused road projects due to bitumen shortages. And while things are ‘back to normal’, the momentum hasn’t returned. Here’s the kicker: we’ve built 70,000 km of highways. Each one will soon need maintenance; meaning demand for equipment isn’t going away. But if we can’t make the parts ourselves, we’ll keep paying premiums for imports. The real challenge? Execution. Our road designs are world-class. It’s the on-ground quality that falls short; just like how a perfect recipe fails if the chef skips steps. India’s road future isn’t about miles built. It’s about whether we build them with machines made here; start to finish.