From Punjab village to farms across India: 2 brothers engineer solution to sugarcane challenge

4 min readJalandharUpdated: Jun 20, 2026 12:41 PM IST

Malkiat Singh (left) and Gurmeet Singh (right).

In a small village in Punjab’s Hoshiarpur district, two brothers have built an engineering enterprise that is helping farmers across India transport heavy agricultural loads more efficiently, while generating employment in rural areas and attracting demand from multiple states.

Malkiat Singh (41) and his younger brother Gurmeet Singh, founders of Zaildaar Innovations in Hayatpur Kotli village near Mukerian, have developed a patented Power Take-Off (PTO)-driven trolley technology that enables heavily loaded agricultural trolleys to assist tractors in movement, reducing fuel consumption, labour costs and operational difficulties.

The brothers recently came into the public spotlight after Malkiat Singh approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court alleging threats to his life and livelihood. However, long before the legal battle, they had built a business that recorded a turnover of around Rs 18 crore last year and expects to touch nearly Rs 70 crore this year.

Born into a farming family in Punjab’s sugarcane belt, Malkiat Singh said the idea emerged from a problem he repeatedly witnessed in agricultural fields.

After completing a diploma in mechanical engineering, he worked in the research and development division of Escorts Limited, while Gurmeet Singh was employed with Sonalika Tractors. Despite successful corporate careers, the brothers decided to return to rural Punjab to develop solutions for farmers.

“We kept seeing heavily loaded sugarcane trolleys getting stuck in fields. Farmers often had to use several tractors to pull out a single trolley, resulting in high fuel and labour costs,” said Malkiat Singh.

In 2019, he left his job and began working on a technology that would allow trolleys to contribute driving power instead of merely being pulled by tractors.

Story continues below this ad

The PTO-driven system developed by Zaildaar Innovations transfers power from a tractor’s PTO shaft to the trolley axle through a specially designed gearbox and driveline mechanism. This allows the trolley wheels to receive driving power and actively assist movement.

According to the company, the system improves traction, reduces wheel slippage, increases load-carrying capacity and enhances safety, particularly during transportation of sugarcane, paddy, grains and other bulk agricultural produce.

The company has applied for a patent for the technology.

One of the features of the innovation is that farmers do not necessarily need to purchase a new trolley. Existing trolleys can be retrofitted with the PTO-driven system according to tractor specifications at a cost ranging from Rs 75,000 to Rs 1 lakh. Complete PTO-driven trolleys manufactured by the company are priced between Rs 4 lakh and Rs 12 lakh.

Story continues below this ad

What began with the manufacture of five to six trolleys in 2020 has expanded rapidly. The company now supplies around 200 trolleys annually and plans to increase production substantially in the coming years.

Demand, the company said, is coming from several states, particularly Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. For distant markets, key engineering components and the PTO technology are supplied from Punjab, while fabrication and assembly are carried out locally to reduce transportation costs.

The enterprise has also emerged as a source of rural employment. According to the company, around 150 people receive direct and indirect employment through fabrication, assembly, welding, engineering, logistics and support services. A majority of the workforce comes from nearby villages.

Operating from rural Punjab, the brothers now aim to establish a larger integrated manufacturing facility to scale production and create additional jobs.

Story continues below this ad

“Our objective was to reduce farmers’ costs and make agricultural transport easier through affordable innovation. We believe there is still significant scope for growth,” said Malkiat Singh.