Indu Projects goes for brand makeover

Hyderabad-based real estate and infrastructure development company, Indu Projects limited (IPL), has embarked upon a brand building exercise as a part of its effort to attract manpower.

"The branding exercise is mainly meant for attracting employees across the country as we have now projects located outside Andhra Pradesh," IPL managing director and chief executive officer, I Syam Prasad Reddy, told Business Standard adding that the company was currently executing projects in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and other states.

According to Reddy, shortage of manpower is the biggest challenge to the infrastructure sector at present and a good pan-India brand image will be helpful in attracting people to join the company.

Besides brand building, IPL is also going in for large-scale automation of construction activity so as to overcome shortage of manpower and ensure completion of projects on schedule. The company has earmarked an amount of Rs 70 crore to be spent over a period of two years for increasing the mechanisation component of construction from 20 per cent to 80 per cent.

Stating that the survival of the infrastructure companies in future would depend on their capability to deliver good quality projects on schedule, Reddy said over the years IPL had invested progressively in cutting-edge technologies to minimise its dependence on manual labour, enhance project predictability and accelerate delivery.

So far, IPL had set up a rebar (reinforcing steel) unit that enables the company to make rebar cages obviating the need for setting up reinforcing cutting yards at every project manned by about 100 people.

This apart, the company has invested in a ready-mix concrete module to reduce project costs, a solid block factory to manufacture fly ash bricks and concrete pumps to facilitate concrete pouring up to a height of 100 metres without human intervention. It has also taken initiatives to use prefab technology.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that the company had shelved its proposal to come out with an initial public offering (IPO) this year in view of the continuing downtrend in the stock market. Instead of an IPO, sources said, the company wanted to raise private equity funds and was currently in talks with about a dozen Indian and foreign firms in this regard.

IPL, which has targeted to emerge as a $-1 billion company by 2011, has more than doubled its turnover from Rs 567 crore in 2006-07 to Rs 1,200 crore in 2007-08. "The company started attracting bigger projects as its credibility increased," Reddy said.

At present, IPL has infrastructure projects worth Rs 13,000 crore to be executed over a period of two to five years.

These include Rs 5,500 crore IT special economic zone near the new Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad, Rs 505 crore civil works contract for a 1,000-Mw thermal power plant near Pune and a Rs 127-crore irrigation project in Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh.