X-ray baggage scanners will now be ‘Made in India’

X-ray baggage scanners: Gone are the days when baggage scanners segment in India was dominated by Chinese suppliers. Recent move by Indian government has sprung open doors for Indian suppliers to provide X-ray baggage scanners developed by indigenous technology. 

One such emerging local firm is Noida based Vehant Technologies. The recently imposed ban on Chinese companies is boosting Indian firms and promoting India to become “self-reliant”, falling in line with the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi of making ‘Atma Nirbhar Bharat’. 

Vehant Technologies sources share that though the sales are down due to pandemic, the firm has struck two major orders from Punjab Prisons and Kolkata Metro. Kapil Bardeja, Co-founder and CEO of Vehant Techologies said, “Due to Covid, the market has been down in recent months hence comparison of sales (with 2019 figures) is not really possible but still this ban has helped a lot.” 

The company, a X-ray baggage scanners machines manufacturer, is also one of the first to develop the machine within India. Currently, the firm has capacity to manufacture 500-600 scanner machines annually. This also includes dual view scanners. 

Though the key players in scanner market are still US and European companies like Smiths Detection, Rapiscan and 3D Xray, Indian players are emerging nevertheless. These include Evolve, Siddhalakshmi and Krystan Vision. 

Mr. Bardeja said, “In X-ray scanners, we are still importing 20-25% components but it is from non-Chinese vendors. Earlier we had a few Chinese vendors but after May 2020 guidelines, we shifted to western vendors which increased costs a bit.” 

Due to India being a new player in this market, it can only manufacture about 500 machines annually, as compared to whooping 5000 scanners by Chinese players. But Bardeja hopes that government support would continue and the manufacturing capacity would be increased. He noted, “We think some kind of duty protection is also required for the Indian players to compete with global players. In my opinion, a 20% duty imposed on foreign players is good for Indian manufacturers to compete.”