Dolphin teams up with NKG for Rs 300 crore highway project

Kanpur-based Dolphin Developers is diversifying into highway construction. It has formed a consortium with Ghaziabad-based NKG Infrastructures Ltd, which has vast experience in the field.

Dolphin is planning to bid for a highway project that links Agra with a national highway, covering a distance of about 70 km, and requires an investment of Rs 200-300 crore.

The company is building the Dwarka-based headquarters of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for Rs 70 crore and hopes that it will be able to swing the project in its favour.

The new company will be Delhi-based and five to seven experts on road building have been recruited.

Vishwanath Gupta, managing director of Dolphin Developers, said this was check stagnation in the building industry. Besides the existing backlog, the government has said all four-lane highways should be made six-lane, ensuring that highway construction does not stagnate.

More importantly, Dolphin is taking steps to broaden its profile and become an integrated construction company, positioning itself for an initial public offering in a few months. It has got ISO 9001-2000 certification from Moody's International.

The firm has applied for 25 acres in the TCK zone of Greater Noida, for an IT SEZ. It has tied up with Bangalore-based Reddy Veeranna Ltd, with a reported net worth of Rs 10,000 crore, which specialises in IT and has customers looking for the IT space. "Once the land is allotted, we would like to rope in the company as a partner in the project," said Gupta. The land will cost about Rs 25 crore and the total project will be of Rs 125 crore.

Another SEZ for leather is being planned for the Kanpur-Lucknow highway, only 4 km from Kanpur, and Dolphin is in the process of acquiring land, which should cost Rs 30 crore and the total project is of Rs 200 crore. Asked about the response of the local leather industry, Gupta said they would invest, but other players too had shown keenness to invest in the SEZ. Kanpur already has a leather technology Park, EPIP, which the Centre has refused to convert into an SEZ.

Therefore, companies are likely to form a queue for taking space. The construction is slated to start in January 2007.

Then there are other projects for townships, which will also have engineering colleges, a university, multiplexes and many others facilities.

These are: a 200-acre township project at Mainawati Marg, in Bithoor; 150 acres at Ishwari Gunj, Bithoor; 100 acres Singhpur, Bithoor; 35 acres at Jarauli, phase I, 150 acres at Jerauld, phase II; 150 acres at the Kanpur-Lucknow road, Lucknow; 20 acres at Unnao, about 20 km from Kanpur in the Kanpur-Lucknow road; and 15 acres at Dehli-Sujanpur.

Gupta said if the land was divided into plots and then sold without construction, it would fetch about Rs 1,000 crore u after full development the figure was not possible to calculate at this juncture.

This is the problem with the forthcoming public issue. I do not know as yet. how much I should plan for, says Gupta.

About land, he said the prices were rising continuously and the land was acquired through free market purchase from the owners, which had put in lot of money in the hands of the farmers. Seventy per cent of land required for these projects has already been acquired.

To strengthen the board, Gupta has roped in Vikram Kothari of Rotomac in the preparation of the issue. The Dolphin group of companies are being reorganised.

Some of them will be part of the group as they have partners, but those which were sold have been merged with the company. The balance sheet of the company will be ready in a week's time.