| A skyscraper may look sleek and elegant, but does it rest on solid foundation and an efficient infrastructure?
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| Singapore-based Meinhardt Pte Ltd, a multi-disciplinary structural and civil engineering consultancy company, plans to set up a one-stop solution design centre in India to train civil and structural engineers in the latest trends and technical complexities that go into designing a building.
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| “A building that looks smart might have poor engineering. Our goal is to provide an integrated value-added consultation to service this end of the building sector so that a developer doesn’t have to seek individual services for either mechanical or electrical works. It will basically be need-driven to offer training in the best technology that exists in the industry,” claims Rajesh Srivastava, director, Meinhardt India.
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| The centre, to be called Meinhardt Design Centre, is expected to come up in Noida within two months at the cost of Rs 4 crore. It plans to train at least 30 engineers in the first batch.
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| Training will be imparted by Meinhardt’s structural and civil engineering experts based in Singapore in areas as diverse as land development, water supply and sewage disposal systems.
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| However, the design centre is just one of the activities that Meinhardt is undertaking in India. It set up its India office one year back to offer customised building services.
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| The company is currently working on design review for the $100-million highway project in the 120-km long Khaga-Allahabad-Varanasi sector.
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| More recently, it bagged a $20- million shopping centre project in Mumbai and is negotiating for two more shopping mall projects in Mumbai and Delhi.
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| In the past, it has offered engineering services to Crossroads in Mumbai, Welcomgroup Hotel in Kolkata and J W Marriot Hotel & Business Club, Chennai.
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| The company, says Srivastava, will also target township projects outside the metros. It has recently bagged the Rs 500-crore South City project in Kolkata.
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| In the pipeline are two super-speciality hospital projects, a Rs 150-crore housing project in Asansol and another Rs 150-crore housing project in Kolkata.
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| But why is Meinhardt looking at India? Answers Yeo Choon Chong, director, Meinhardt (Singapore) Pte: “India is experiencing long, sustainable growth.”
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| In fact, the company is projecting a turnover of $2 million in consultancy in its first year of operation in the country.
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| The battery of services that Meinhardt offers in India include tender assessment, concept design, site inspection and financial reviews.
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| It has expertise in airports and hospital design, skyscrapers and facade technology, power plants and highways.
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| “We are not a Kentucky Fried Chicken operation, where you have a franchisee and forget about the business. We like to share our strength and expertise and mobilise resources as consultancy is our core business. We have a huge database of experts and pull in our resources whenever necessary,” says Chong.
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| Meinhardt Singapore’s consulting turnover is over (S) $100 million. The company is present in Pakistan and has been operating in China for the last 10 years.
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| With a staff of over 400, its consultancy business in China fetches $15-20 million revenue every year.
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| The company, set up by Bill Meinhardt in 1955, is said to be largest building service company in the Asia Pacific region. |
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