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THE OSCARS OF THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

6th Annual Construction World Awards Held Amid Presence of Industry Captains & Over 300 Construction Professionals

October 24, Mumbai: India’s most prestigious construction awards were held today at a gala function amid presence of industry captains at Taj Lands End, Mumbai. The 6th Annual Construction World Awards 2008, organized by ASAPP Media and supported by the Builders Association of India (BAI) were presented to 43 companies over four categories. The winners included L&T, Maytas Infra, Essar Constructions, Nagarjuna Constructions, Era Infra, BL Kashyap, Marg, Unity Infraprojects, JCB, Sandvik Asia, Telcon, L&T Komatsu, IRCON, Jaiprakash Associates, Punj Lloyd, HCC, Afcons, JSW, Ultratech, Welspun etc.

E Ahamed, Union Minister of State External Affairs; Anil Deshmukh, Minister for Public Works, Government of Maharashtra; Pranay Vakil, Chairman, Knight Frank India; Niranjan Hiranandani; Vipin Sondhi, MD, JCB, Hagan Kingstedt, MD, Sandvik, Kishore Avarsekar, CMD, Unity Inra, Ankush Krishnan, MD, IRCON, M.K. Madhav, MD, Maytas Infra, V.B. Gadgil, L&T, Arup Choudhury, CMD, NBCC, Mahesh Mudda, Chairman, Builders Association of India, A.K.Misra, ED, Tata Projects, A.N. Jangle, ED, Afcons, J.L.Khushru, Director, Era Infra, B.G.Menon, ED, Marg, Architects Rahul Kadri; Raja Aederi; and over three hundred senior professionals from the construction industry across India were present at the event.

Speaking at the event, Nirajan Hiranandani exhorted the government to take decisive steps in containing the economic slowdown and small measures would be like “offering crocin to cure cancer”. Vakil was optimistic and offered the audience to visualize a modern Mumbai post five years. Minister Deshmukh announced that the worli sealink bridge would be ready by January 2009 and on 26th January 2009 the foundation stone for the Sewri trans harbour link would be laid.

“Improvising and drawing upon our experience of the past five awards, a comprehensive methodology was adopted to categorize and select the winners this year. The methodology involved financial results of construction companies for the past 6 years with details on operating revenue, Net profit after tax, Equity capital and Assets. Calculations were further made to observe growth in operating revenue and growth in profits. Both these growth factors were integrated statistically to provide “Weighted Index”. The results were put before an expert panel, the members of which are qualified to observe irregularities in the process,” explains Pratap Padode, Managing Director, ASAPP Media Information Group. Members of the expert panel include Mahesh Mudda, Chairman Builders Association of India, SA Reddi, Advisor, Gammon India, Sanjay Bahadur, ex-MD ACC Concrete, PR Swarup, DG, CIDC, Niranjan Hiranandani, Satish Dhupelia amongst others.

“Growth was identified as a benchmark of progress. And, to capture the essence, we did not allow size to overshadow a company’s performance, nor did we allow extraneous transactions to obfuscate statistics and objectivity,” he adds.

For the purpose of the awards, the Construction Industry was divided into three segments, viz, Contractors/Construction companies, Construction Machinery Manufacturers and Construction Material Manufacturers. Companies with minimum revenue of Rs. 40 crores and paid up capital plus reserves of Rs. 10 crores or more in the current year qualified for the awards. Proprietary firms and foreign companies not incorporated in India were excluded. Among diversified companies, only those companies that contributed 40% of annual gross revenue to their construction division were eligible for nomination.

Padode, who has been instrumental into getting the awards constituted adds, “The awards have brought about an era of transparency and brought about awareness of corporate governance. To be a part of the ranking process, big and small construction companies come forward and share their financial information. The award process has helped identify many leaders and emerging leaders much before fund managers and FIIs discovered them. This is the only exercise of its kind in the world.”