Sachin,
Please refere to Income Tax Circular no.558 issued in 1990. This circular has been dealt with the matter as mentioned by u.
In that circular , the Board have been advised that although the contract may appear to be a single hire contract i.e. for hiring of crane services, it is actually a service contract (for shifting of machinery from one place to other) entered into between the you and the owner of the crane for using his crane for shifting of machinery.
In such cases, the provisions of section 194C are applicable and tax will have to be deducted at source from the payments made to crane owner. If the entire crane has been given by crane owner to you with driver for certain specific job and responsibility of execution of particular job (i.e. in this case is shifting of machinery) rests with crane owner, then its definately be a works contract as crane is only a resource assigned by crane owner for execution of specific work allotted to him.
I think the circular mentioned above is very much clear in iteself that to classify such transaction under sec 194C and u would not face any further issues. Please first go through the circular carefully and proceed accordingly.
Thanks and Regards,
Manoj B. Gavali