Srinidhi Ananthraman, Founder & CEO, Geodesic Techniques Pvt Ltd.
Srinidhi Ananthraman, Founder & CEO, Geodesic Techniques Pvt Ltd, gets candid about the company’s expansion plans, involvement in monorail projects and the pivotal role played in the recently launched T3 terminal in New Delhi.
You have recently outlined an aggressive plan targeting revenue of Rs 1,000 crore and an investment of Rs 200 crore…
We had planned for this expansion almost a year and a half ago. However, owing to the undulating nature of the market we were unable to achieve this target. At that point, people were hesitant to finalise their plans. Today, the economy has improved. We are looking to achieve our target within three years.
What are your key target areas for expansion?
Steel is an integral part of our business. We are looking to expand into three key areas: tall buildings, transport infrastructure driven by steel-intensive structures, and power plants. Tall buildings will be a huge driver while transport infrastructure like metro stations, guide ways and elevated roads are also an emerging market.
How competitive is the construction space today?
It is getting very competitive in terms of numbers and professionalism. Today, clients are looking for companies who will work in compliance with their demands and requirements. They also want innovative solutions, which has upped competitiveness.
What is your brand’s USP?
Our core strength lies in providing innovative solutions with a concept-to-commissioning approach.
How do you judge the average consumer today?
The average client is relatively mature with exposure to international trends and standards. The challenge is for the local supplier to step up and meet these requirements. If he can’t deliver, the client goes elsewhere. This demanding attitude works well in helping us push the envelope and exceeding prescribed limits.
What is your involvement in the Mumbai and Bengaluru monorail projects?
Our involvement has been fairly limited in the Mumbai monorail project thus far; we are the structural engineers and consultants. But we are steadily increasing our involvement as the construction phase has begun. A similar approach has been adopted in Bengaluru where we have rendered an identical design-and-build approach. We essentially build steel-intensive monorail systems.
What kind of technology is being implemented in the monorail project?
We have used a combination of technologies: steel concrete composite technology, large-span structures and pre-fabricated off-site construction-enabling technology. All these have been integrated using structural engineering solutions.
Tell us about your role in the recently inaugurated T3 terminal in Delhi?
In most airport projects, the erection is very challenging. It’s a very large building so you don’t have any access for cranes. The technology is also quite complex. In case of the T3, we lifted almost 650 tonne of roof measuring over 1.5 acre in one go. We also developed a new technology to pull a structure of 600 tonne into position, assemble it on the runway side, and pull it in stages until we set up the erection. These were things being done in India for the very first time.
Tell us about your current projects.
We are currently working on the Mumbai airport, which is slated to launch by the end of 2011 and uses almost 20,000 tonne of steel.
