Simplex to set up centre for digitised maps

Simplex Concrete Piles plans to focus more on engineering software like Geographic Information System (GIS) and set up a 50-seat business process outsourcing (BPO) facility for digitised maps.

The investment in the BPO centre will be around Rs 5 lakh per seat amounting to Rs 2.5 crore and will be set up either in Mumbai or Kolkata to leverage on the trained manpower in Mumbai or cheap labour in Kolkata.

"Digitisation of maps is a potential market for us as many foreign companies and Indian municipal bodies want to convert their paper survey maps and blueprints to more convenient digital versions. We will provide services like conversion of digital drawings and make changes if required," Amitabh Mundhra, director of Simplex Concrete Piles said.

The BPO centre will employ digitisers and trained draftsmen and the fees will be based on parameters like number of sheets, size in terms of per square inch and density. At present, there are companies like Rolta which provides similar services.

Mundhra added that services like GIS is a potential Rs 300-400 crore market and Simplex would like to take up more projects for mapping. "At present, we are associated with a water body mapping project in Chattisgarh and this should be replicated in the whole country. However, such initiatives require huge investments so the government has to be more proactive," he said.

This year Simplex Concrete Piles also set up its technology arm - Simplex Technologies "" which provides engineering software. It is also the Indian partner of Autodesk which provides design solutions like AutoCAD.

Simplex Concrete Piles is also shifting focus to taking up more marine, water, oil and gas pipeline projects. "The internal rate of returns are very high in such projects and the government has also increased focus on infrastructure which will boost growth in marine, oil and gas pipelines," Mundhra said.

The company will also focus more on Middle East like Qatar, Libya and Oman and aims to increase its revenue to Rs 2,200 crore in next three years and has bagged projects worth Rs 1,700 crore. "At present, 10 per cent of our total revenue is from international projects but with out increase in focus we would hike it to 50 per cent in next three years," Mundhra said.