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The organisers of the INTERMAT 2015 event in Paris are bullish about the potential success of the show, with more than 1,000 brands already registered as exhibitors. Those present at the exhibition include 38 out of the top 50 leaders in the construction equipment market worldwide. These include: CNH Industrial, Doosan, Hitachi Construction Machinery, Hyundai Heavy Industries, JLG, John Deere, Kobelco Construction Machinery, Komatsu, Kubota, Liebherr, Liugong, Sany, Shantui, Terex, Volvo Construction Equipm

"White lines don't do it"

India’s construction sector is well positioned to take advantage of business opportunities when the government moves to revitalise the frail economy, as visitors to this year’s bC India show will find out. New roads, power plants, airports and other infrastructure have been promised by India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi as his Bhartiya Janta Party comes off a May election with a clear majority.

LiuGong Machinery, a Chinese manufacturer of heavy equipment, had more than 500 dealer representatives from 80 countries attend the company’s 11th annual global dealership conference. The event was held this month at the Liuzhou International Exhibition Centre in Liuzhou, in north-central China, home of LiuGong. The company, which had global sales US$2 billion in 2013, also held demonstrations of its equipment. LiuGong was set up in 1958 and sold more than 43,000 units last year. In 2011, Cummins and LiuG

Mayalsia’s Transport Ministry has revealed a reduction in the fatality risk rate on the country’s road network. The country's road death index has dropped from 4.51/10,000 registered vehicles in 2004 to 2.9/10,000 registered vehicles in 2014. Between 2004 and 2013, road crashes were the cause of death for 65,850 people in Malaysia, with the costs estimates at some US$23.6 billion. While risk of being involved in a fatal road crash in Malaysia has fallen, the fatality rate remains of concern. Between January

There is a call for papers for the 1st international conference on transport and health. This cross-disciplinary event will be held in London from July 6th- July 8th at University College. Papers have to be presented by January. The innovative event aims to combine presentations from transportation and public health officials on key issues including global road safety and injury prevention; urban and rural transport planning; air quality; health and environmental impact; active transport; economics and sust

Japan has agreed in principle to provide financial assistance to Thailand for road construction and upgrades in connection with the East-West Economic Corridor. The corridor is based on 1,450km of highway running across four Southeast Asian countries. The idea of investing in the corridor was originally proposed during a multi-national ministerial conference in Manila, Philippines, in 1998. Much of the route had been completed by 2010, according to review document by Asian Development Bank. It also noted t

Brazil’s roads are improving, but more than 49,000km remain in a fair, bad or very bad state, according to the latest figures from the National Confederation of Transport. Nearly half of roads are considered fair or worse, down from three-quarters in the NCT’s last survey in 2004. The NCT represents around 124,000 cargo and passenger transportation businesses and more than 824,000 independent truck drivers. The survey took into account paving, road routes and signalling and found the 10 best roads in

Spain’s Castilla-La Mancha government lays out 12-year road plan Spain’s regional government of Castilla-La Mancha will spend around US$282 million on new road infrastructure as part of a major 12-year highways strategy. Castilla-La Mancha approved the Third Regional Roads Plan this month which envisaged spending upwards of $1.6 billion in the 12 years. The plan will be reviewed every four years. The landlocked autonomous region of Castilla-La Mancha lies mostly southeast of Madrid and includes

Rugged mobile computing specialist Mobexx has introduced a slimline 10-inch MIL-STD-810G, IP-65 tested Windows 8.1 Professional tablet PC. The 1kg Xplore Bobcat has front and back facing cameras and is powered by an energy-efficient 1.9 GHz quad-core processor, an Intel Bay Trail E3845. It has a backlit IPS LCD screen and is ATEX/IECEx Zone 2/22 certified. The Xplore Bobcat is for use explosive atmospheres and hazardous environments such as found in oil, gas and petrochemical production, mining, paint an

Data from Vietnam’s National Traffic Safety Committee reveals that 7,475 people were killed in traffic crashes between January and October 2014. The figures show that an average of 25 people have died in traffic accidents/day in Vietnam so far during 2014. The data also reveals that there have been 20,801 traffic crashes in this period, injuring a total of 19,937 people, which is a drop compared to 2013. The country has a population of some 90 million according to the most recent estimates, putting the scal

Brazil is benefiting from a boost in its road safety levels. Official data shows that vehicle crashes accounted for 40,500 fatalities in 2013, a decrease of 10% from the previous year. The figures show that this is the biggest drop in road fatalities since 1998, when the death rate was reduced by 13%. The road safety gain has been achieved largely by much tougher enforcement of existing rules banning drink driving and speeding. Brazil’s road safety levels are not good, with an average of 20 fatalities/100,0

Work is now being carried out on three major road projects in Qatar. The work is worth over US$2.58 billion in all. One project is for an upgrade to the North Road corridor. This will add dedicated cycle tracks and pedestrian bridges and another lane to the main carriageway between Al Khartiyat and Duhail. The work is due for completion in the last quarter of 2016. Another project is for the $980 million Lusail Expressway, which is 5.3km long and due for completion on 2017. The third is for the 9.9km long D