EXCON 2009, South East Asia's largest Construction Equipment and Construction Technology Trade Fair, was Inaugurated by Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Mr Kamal Nath, the five day exhibition was laid out at a sprawling 1,60,000 Sq.mts. of area at Bangalore International Exhibition Centre, which housed in-door exhibition halls covering 40,000 Sq.mts.

Excon 2009 had participation from 464 exhibitors including 140 International Exhibitors & 4 Country Pavilions China, Germany, Italy and UK and attracted over 30,000 business visitors with close to 400 new product launches. The event had live demonstration of equipments for earthmoving and construction, lifting, material handling, concrete making, hydraulics & pneumatics, drills, power tools & piling, electronics, controls & instrumentation, asphalt, compactors, compressors and generators, besides, components, accessories and consumables.

Exhibitors of Original Equipment Manufacturers offered "on the ground" experience for customers, most of who have come from various parts of India & abroad. The visitors were able to benchmark product features of different makes, interact about their requirements with technical heads, and negotiate deals with chief executives.

Apart from the exhibitors of equipments, components and accessories, Excon 2009 had organized the participation of major leasing and finance companies, who offered loans on the spot to customers. Though OEM sales are expected to account for over 70%, component manufacturers could use Excon as a business-to-business platform and explored opportunities to become suppliers for OEMs.

Excon 2009 had also featured a Conference on Construction Equipment Industry, organized by Indian Earthmoving & Construction Industry Association Limited (IECIAL), in association with CII. The conference highlighted the growth potential for the industry, which could increase from the US$3-4 billion to US$8 billions during the Eleventh Five Year Plan (2007-2012) that estimates the infrastructure funding requirement to be US$500 billion. The conference emphasized the need for easing of norms for land acquisition, speeding up of infrastructure projects of national importance, skill development & introduction of certification courses for operators, increasing safety standards at construction sites and taking measures to prevent imports of used equipment without age limits, among others.