L&T to enter new segments

Plans to take up projects on solar energy and construct an underground car parking in Chennai.

Larsen & Toubro Limited (L&T), India’s largest engineering and construction conglomerate, is planning to foray into new segments including solar power and underground structures, said KV Rangaswami, president – construction, and member of the board, L&T.

Speaking on the sidelines of the 10th anniversary of Build India Scholarship (BIS) conclave, he said the company was planning to take up projects on solar energy at its premises in Chennai. The company has also submitted a proposal to the Tamil Nadu government for constructing an underground car parking at T Nagar to decongest the area.

L&T had recently entered into construction of seaports (in Orissa), airports in (Mumbai) and power plants. It plans to build ultra mega power plants in the next five years. In December last year, the company had floated L&T Power Development Company to foray into the power generation business on its own. The company has bid for a few UMPPs including the proposed project in Kakinada.

The construction division is also planning to recruit 3,000 to 5,000 people including freshers in the next few years.

“The division has an order book of about Rs 36,000 crore — growing at 30-35 per cent annually— to be executed in the next two years," he said.

The company would recruit 300 engineering graduates, 500 diplomaholders and 50 students from IIT Chennai and Delhi among others.

According to Rangaswami, though there are about 260 engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu, not many of the passouts are not employable. The current education system does not meet the industry requirements, he added.

Speaking about BIS, an initiative of L&T in association with IIT Madras and Delhi, he said L&T was sponsoring fresh engineering graduates who want to pursue MTech in construction technology and management in these two institutes. In the last 10 years, the company has sponsored over 7,000 such graduates.