Crane, hoist and truck plans tested in 4D before a cramped city site opens
TL;DR Swingclear runs a fixed-fee study before a tight urban project breaks ground. It places the tower crane, hoists, laydown yards and truck routes on the plot, plays them against the schedule and shows you where they collide. Mid-size builders and contractors pay per project to fix those clashes on screen instead of on site.
Indian projects run late, and at scale. In April 2024, 792 of 1,838 large central projects were behind schedule by an average of 35.4 months, and contractual and manpower issues were among the reasons given[1]. Those are public works, so treat them as adjacent, but the habits carry over to private sites.
On a redevelopment plot in Mumbai or a narrow Bengaluru frontage, logistics is the hidden constraint. There's room for one crane, maybe one hoist, and a lane that trucks can use only at night. Machine placement near excavation edges is a known hazard - in one Chinese dataset, machinery was involved in about 30% of housing-site accidents in 2018 and 2019[2]. I found no Indian figure for delays caused by poor site logistics.
Swingclear is a service with software behind it. The team takes the plot survey, the structural outline and the contractor's main schedule, and builds a simple 4D model of the site over time[3]. Into that model go the crane's radius and lift capacities, hoist positions, storage and fabrication yards, the concrete pump stand and every truck movement.
What comes out is a short clash report. It shows the week the crane jib swings over the neighbour's roof, the month rebar storage blocks the pump, or the slab pour that needs more trucks than the lane allows. Each issue comes with a fix the planner has checked, and the team reruns the model after any big change.
The seed promised AI simulation of whole projects and I reframed it, because full 4D tools assume clean BIM models that most mid-size builders simply don't have. A narrow logistics study needs far less input and answers the questions site teams already argue about.
What it does, in regulatory terms: planning advice only. It does not certify cranes or replace the inspections the OSH Code 2020 expects at construction sites[4].
The builder's projects head or the main contractor's planning manager pays, once per project, before mobilisation. I couldn't find an Indian price for this kind of study. As an anchor, a single licence of one leading 4D tool lists at ₹232,567 a year[5], and that's before anyone is trained to use it. My working assumption is ₹3–8 L per project.
Mid-size firms run site apps now. One site app alone reports 700K+ downloads and 85,000+ projects[6], so schedules and site data are far easier to get than five years ago. Global planning tools have also shown that testing build options before work starts pays off, and one vendor reports 12% equipment cost savings (a vendor figure, so take it with a pinch of salt)[7].
No public figure exists for spend on site-logistics planning in India. The adjacent signal is the delay data above[1] and the price of 4D software licences[5]. Your real market is the count of high-rise or basement-heavy projects on plots under about one acre in your launch city, and you'll have to build it bottom-up from municipal approval lists.
Global 4D software vendors sell scheduling tools, but one leading vendor's India page doesn't list site-logistics or crane planning as features[5]. AI scheduling tools generate schedule scenarios for large capital projects[7]. Indian site apps track progress, materials and labour with no what-if planning[6]. Large contractors keep in-house planning cells. The gap is the mid-size builder who has no planner trained in 4D and needs one answer for one plot.
| Difficulty | Moderate (37/100) |
| Starting capital | ₹40–80 L |
| Time to launch | 4–6 months |
The software is mostly assembled from existing tools. The hard part is credibility with site people, because your planner has to know crane charts, pour sequences and what a night-delivery permit really allows. Each study also eats skilled hours, so your margins depend on templating the model.
No licence is needed to give planning advice, but your clients work under site safety law, and your contracts have to reflect that.
Building this outside India? The categories above usually have a local equivalent, so check with your own regulator.
Don't trust AI with lift capacities or anything that touches worker safety. A qualified planner checks every crane position before it goes in a report.
Want to work out the AI layer for Swingclear? Talk to Yash →
Here's what can go south -
I like this for a planner or civil engineer who has run a congested city site and can sell to builders directly. If you're a software founder hoping the tool sells itself then skip it. Prove first that on three live projects your study caught at least two clashes the site team agrees would have cost a week or more.
Plan for roughly ₹40–80 L, mostly on skilled planners and software licences before the first studies pay.
No licence for planning advice. Your contracts must say the study isn't a safety sign-off, because the OSH Code duties stay with the employer.
Yes, any city with tight plots and tower cranes has this problem. Check local site safety law and crane permit rules before you sell.
The free Swingclear validation kit has the line-by-line capital breakdown, the effort scoring, the rules and liability checklist, a 14-day validation sprint with pass/fail targets, a 90-day launch plan, 10 interview questions for builders and contractors, and 5 assumptions to test. Download the kit →
Thinking about building Swingclear or something close to it? The make-or-break work is showing a builder a clash on screen that their own planner missed, and I can help you get to that first demo. If you need a hand, you know where to find me. Talk to Yash →
For illustration only. Names are fictional and ideas hypothetical; sourced facts are real but may be out of date. Nothing here is legal, financial or professional advice, and Yash Khatri is not personally liable for any use of it. Read the full disclaimer.