Contractor expansion

IN CONVERSATION

Construction contractor Era Infrastructure has turned builder with some Rs 2,000 crore of projects on the ground. AK Seth, senior vice-president, commercial, talks to Business Standard.

Which smaller towns is Era focussing on?

Palwal and Bahadurgarh in Haryana and Mandi Govindgarh in Punjab are some. Besides, Faridabad, Meerut, Bangalore, Bhopal and Indore. And we plan to go the whole hog on most of these projects by March.

Has the real estate boom turned Era to construction?

Not really, it's our expertise. We have done several construction projects for PSUs like NTPC and NHPC and state units like PUDA.

Then we have been associated with projects in the SEZs and construction of bridges etcetera. Today the group has got the confidence that it can develop its own complexes and reach out to people at affordable rates.

Any reason for getting into tier III cities... cheap land?

Not just that. There are very few players in these cities and there is an immense dearth of good housing and commercial complexes there. So the demand is high and is going to stay.

But we are not restricted to tier III cities; we are developing commercial and residential complexes in the more competitive cities like Faridabad, Ambala and Meerut.

So is Era north-India centric?

No, we're developing a commercial complex in Pune, and have projects in Bangalore.

So what is Era's USP?

We bank on our long association with prestigious construction projects as contractors and sub-contractors, a team of over 500 professionals and the guidance of the chairman, HS Bharana, a civil engineer with over 25 years of expertise.

Also, Era is recognised as one of the fastest growing construction companies by the journal Construction World.