EVENT REPORT-ICF 2018

The festival, organised by FIRST Construction Council, in New Delhi from October 24-25, successfully brought together the government and the private sector to

chart a forward path for India’s construction and infrastructure agenda.

It all began 10-11 months ago, when infrastructure think tank FIRST Construction Council approached the Ministry of Commerce, Government of India. The council’s premise was loud and clear: A $170-billion opportunity is moving to Asia and India stands poised to capitalise on it with its engineering talent pool, software capabilities, infrastructure, and the ability to scale up the value chain. The need of the hour was equally clear: A much simpler environment for companies to set up their base and operate in India. What began as a discussion, evolved into a blockbuster event in New Delhi – the India Construction Festival 2018 (ICF 2018).

Indeed, the festival celebrated opportunities, recognised excellence and brought the gamut of the global and national building, construction and infrastructure fraternity together. Held in association with the world’s oldest and largest circulated New York-based ENGINEERING NEWS-RECORD (ENR) magazine, the event was supported by the Ministry of Commerce, and

Suresh Prabhu, Minister of Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation, graced the event

as Chief Guest. Other supporters of the event included the Engineering Export

Janice Tuchman, Editor-in-Chief, ENR.

EXCLUSIVE REPORT!!!Reality Check: Quality of TMT Rebars

While addressing the vast gathering at the India Construction Festival, Pratap Padode, Founder & President, FIRST Construction Council, launched the council’s exclusive first-of-its-kind study and analysis on TMT rebars. Sixty-six TMT rebar samples manufactured by 26 brands were sent to be tested for impurities. The results were alarming: Over 50 per cent of TMT rebars advertised on national TV failed the test as they were inferior and will invite structural damage earlier than later. “The test result indicates that if 70 per cent of the material getting into roads and building construction is of inferior quality, our future is definitely at stake,” said Padode. Considering the current focus and opportunity in India’s infra plan, this begs the question: Is the country’s Rs 5.7 trillion infrastructure at risk?

Pratap Padode, Founder and President, FIRST Construction Council.

Promotion Council, US India Business Council, Builder Association of India and National Highway Builder Federation.

The agendaDay 1 started with the India

Roads Conference, followed by the 16th CONSTRUCTION WORLD Global Awards, while Day 2 kicked off with the CONSTRUCTION WORLD Leadership Summit and concluded with the 6th Annual Equipment India Awards. And, there was much more to the two-day construction carnival. FIRST Construction Council launched its first ever exclusive

report on the failure of TMT rebars; Suresh Prabhu launched the CONSTRUCTION WORLD and INFRASTRUCTURE TODAY Anniversary Editions; Graham Robbinson, Economist and Executive Director, Global Perspectives, spoke on ‘Construction Trends 2030’ and the critical role India has to play; and there was an exclusive project

dearly and the investments we are really talking about are humongous. There is no point in wasting them and realising five years down the line what we should have done otherwise. Be it design, building material or engineering, it is better to deliberate, plan, design, and then do what we need to do.”

“The construction industry will demand quality infrastructure with least cost and time.”

- Suresh Prabhu, Minister of Commerce and Industry and Civil Aviation, GoI

“The Indian economy, which is the fastest growing economy, is marching towards higher and better growth. A glimpse of the near future promises the possibility of anything and everything with the help of new technology, with least investment

and people benefitting from it at large. The growth of the country’s economy lies in

infrastructure projects, such as providing houses, building roads, laying new tracks, etc. Therefore, the

construction sector will be playing an important role in India’s growing economy. Despite the availability of technology, all construction

projects are labour-intensive; hence, they will generate huge employment opportunities throughout the country.

In days to come, one will observe that quality infrastructure, constructing projects with the least time and cost and best quality, will be the new demand of the construction industry. In that context, I congratulate Pratap Padode for bringing us under one roof and deliberating upon many issues related to the growth of this industry. In days to come, this will help the growth of the industry in an organised manner, where key inputs will come from the industry itself.

I am glad that this particular conclave took place and I look forward to all of you succeeding in your business endeavours and making Indian infrastructure better.”

presentation on the Statue of Unity, the world’s tallest statue of Sardar Vallabhai Patel being unveiled by the Prime Minister.

Welcoming an audience of over 700 at the festival, Pratap Padode, Founder & President, FIRST Construction Council, said: “Haphazard growth has cost us

(L-R): Pratap Padode; Janice Tuchman; Suresh Prabhu; Falguni Padode, Managing Editor, CONSTRUCTION WORLD; and Scott Blair, Managing Editor, ENR.

EVENT REPORT-ICF 2018

In her address, Janice Tuchman, Editor-in-Chief, ENR, said, “It is amazing to see you all (the audience) out there and have this great brain thrust coming to talk about construction. I am excited to be collaborating with FIRST Construction Council and its aim to introduce some of the best practices in the construction sector in India.”

For his part, Scott Seltz, Publisher, ENR, said, “We are honoured to be here and support the India Construction Festival 2018. Our mission at ENR is to be the resource for the engineering and construction industries by providing our services to engineering and construction professionals like you. Being our first visit to India, we have seen the country’s rich history of engineering and building wonders. In years to come, India will create and produce infrastructure projects that will have a tremendous impact on its culture, economy and society.”

Across the board, industry sentiments were more positive than ever and there was a palpable emotion: Hope. Held amid an august gathering of top government officials, policymakers and regulators, captains of the construction industry as well as analysts and finance bigwigs from

Scott Seltz, Publisher, ENR.

“Andhra Pradesh plans to be India’s topmost investment destination by 2050.”

- Bhavna Saxena, Special Commissioner, Andhra Pradesh Economic Development Board

“The focus is to transform the state into a happy, inclusive and innovation-driven society. The current growth rate of Andhra Pradesh is 11.22 per cent, which is far ahead of the national average of 7.52 per cent. We have consistently been moving up on the growth chart. Therefore, there is economic stability in the state.

There is 10 per cent growth equally across the agricultural, manufacturing and services sectors, generating balanced economic development and integration of policies. Besides, there is a targetted increase in urbanisation – from 35 per cent to 50 per cent in the coming years, which is of interest to the construction industry.

Andhra Pradesh has been ranked No. 1 in ease of doing business by the World Bank as well as the Government of India two years in a row. All approvals take place within 21 days; this is the bedrock of the investment-friendliness of the state. To date, 31,423 have been granted; in the past six months, compliance was 99 per cent and in the past two months, it was 100 per cent.

In Amaravati, we have real-time governance and a command centre, where all department updates and approvals are done on a real-time basis; this is monitored by the chief minister. This shows a high level of accountability.

Andhra Pradesh plans to be the topmost investment destination in the country by 2050. The vision document has been approved and plans are in place. The opportunities in the coming years will be the greenfield city of Amaravati, the Polavaram project, six new proposed airports and eight new proposed ports.”

India and business delegations from overseas, ICF was the perfect networking ground for the who’s who of the construction fraternity.

Read on to learn, in pictures and words, how IFC 2018 successfully unfolded!

16th CONSTRUCTION WORLD Global Awards

With 40 winners from India and across the globe, 18 partners, and over 250 attendees, the stalwarts of the construction industry came together in a true celebration of victory.

Fastest Growing Construction Companies: (L-R): Pratap Padode, FIRST Construction Council; Dilip Suryavanshi, Dilip Buildcon; Raghu Alluri, NCC Infrastructure Holdings; Vinayak Deshpande, Tata Projects; Vivek Gautam, Tata Projects; Sandeep Garg, Welspun Enterprises; Graham Robinson, Global Construction Perspectives; MV Satish, L&T; Bhavna Saxena, Andhra Pradesh Economic Development Board; Zahid Vijapura, GHV Group; Vinod Agarwal, GR Infraprojects; Mehttab Siddiqui, GHV Group; Ratan Lal Kashyap, GR Infraprojects; K Jalandhar Reddy, KNR Constructions; and Sumit Banerjee, CONSTRUCTION WORLD.

Top Challengers: (L-R): Pratap Padode; Devendra Jain, Dilip Buildcon; Rahul Talele, Kolte Patil Developers; Pradeep Sharma, Action Construction Equipment; K Jalandhar Reddy; PS Patel, PSP Projects; Sandeep Garg; Graham Robinson; Piyush Gupta, Tata Steel; Satish Kumar Agarwal, Kamdhenu; Koushik Sarkar, Everest Industries; Dilip Suryavanshi; MC Agrawal, Steel Authority of India; and Sumit Banerjee.

ENR Recognition Ceremony: (L-R): Ramadan Harb, Khatib & Alami; Ruby Rajvanshi, Hatch; Eun Soo Lee, Hyundai Construction Equipment India; Subodh Dixit, Shapoorji Pallonji & Co; MV Satish; Elizabeth King, Mott MacDonald; Sanjeev Kapoor, Ramboll Gruppen; Janice Tuchman, ENR; Graham Robinson; Riccardo Pontiggia, Rizzani de Eccher; Peter Wögerbauer, Strabag; Sunil Takyar, Bechtel; S Rajagopalan, TBEA India; Ertug Gunes, ENKA; Charat Hora, Black & Veatch; Sreekanth APV, Arcadis; Bharat Singh, Jacobs; and Scott Blair, ENR.

EVENT REPORT-ICF 2018

India Roads Conference

(L-R): Deepak Garg, Director & CEO, SANY Heavy Industry India; Yogesh Joshi, Vice President-Technical, Patel Infrastructure; RK Pandey, Member-Projects, NHAI;

Manoj Kumar, Managing Director, Delhi Transport Corporation; BK Arora, General Manager, Afcons Infrastructure; and (Moderator) Siva Subramanian,

Director-Global Infrastructure Ratings, India Ratings & Research.

(L-R): Dr Pradeep N, Industry Manager-Utilities, Transport and Mining, Esri IndiaTechnologies; (Moderator) Dr A Sivathanu Pillai, President, PMA India; Shailesh Pathak, CEO, L&T Infrastructure Development Projects; and

Dr Ritesh Tiwari, Director-Highways & Structures, Egis.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• India has changed its focus from project cost to project life-cycle.

• 24,800 km of road projects will be completed under the Bharatmala programme by 2022.

• Change from EPC-based bidding to HAM will lead to faster project implementation.

• Construction equipment industry still depends on import substance and has failed to manufacture critical components in India.

• CNG is a cleaner fuel and other states must implement it.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Unless an apt project management method is in place, it will be tough to implement Bharatmala efficiently.

• It is time to bring intelligence into construction through IoT and Artificial Intelligence.

• The government is nearly losing `2 trillion per year because of the delays in project execution.

• Implementation and execution of projects are bigger impediments than finance.

• Judicial risk always poses a threat to India’s infrastructure sector.

• If infra developers get adequate aggregate within a stipulated timeframe, delays in projects could be curbed by almost 70 per cent.

SESSION I - Vision of Indian Roads Before Cars Fly

SESSION II - Project Management (Building Efficiently, Minimising Risks, Encouraging Innovation)

(L-R): Jagdish Toshniwal, Managing Director, Wonder Cement; Himanshu Agarwal, Senior Vice President (Roads-International Markets), Zydex; K Sitaramanjaneyulu,

Senior Principal Scientist-Pavement Evaluation Division, CRRI; Ramesh Palagiri, Managing Director & CEO, Wirtgen India; and (Moderator) Frank Hollowell, Energy,

Infrastructure and Smart Cities Consultant, US Chamber of Commerce.

(L-R): Munish Taneja, President & CEO-EHB Business, SORIL Infra Resources; Santosh Rai, Head-Business Development, HCC; Sandeep Upadhyay, Managing

Director & CEO, Centrum Infrastructure Advisory; Rohan Suryavanshi, Head-Strategy & Planning, Dilip Buildcon; Sandeep Garg, Managing Director, Welspun Enterprises;

and (Moderator) Manish R Sharma, Partner, PwC.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Infrastructure assets are going to remain for the next 50 years, and looking at the life-cycle of the projects, there is a need to create sustainable infrastructure network.

• For efficient project delivery, there is a need for a strong and stable government partnership along with capable project developers.

• Soil stabilisation and cemented-base is getting popular in national and state highway construction, especially in the eastern part of India.

• With conventional methods, India will consume resources unnecessarily, leading it to material wastage.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Today, 15 of the top 20 companies are sitting on an average order book of `100 billion.

• The question from here going forward is, if these companies will be able to execute it in time or not.

• In the recent past, state road projects have witnessed decent amount of participation from private players.

• To achieve India’s road connectivity, HAM is the most relevant method.

• State governments must come up with road projects below `5 billion to attract competition from the mid and small-level players.

SESSION III - Creating Sustainable Infrastructure

SESSION IV - Bidding Models and its Success

• State Partner: Andhra Pradesh Economic Development Board • Platinum Partner: Dilip Buildcon • Official Cement Partner: Wonder Cement • Gold Partner: Welspun Enterprises

• Silver Partner: Chetak Enterprises • Associate Partners: GHV India; Sany India; GR Infraprojects; Action Construction Equipment; Hyundai Construction Equipment; Tractors India;

Godavari Paints; and Patel Infrastructure.

PARTNERS

EVENT REPORT-ICF 2018

CONSTRUCTION WORLD Leadership Summit 2018

(L-R): (Moderator) Scott Blair, Managing Editor, ENR; Sandeep Singh, Managing Director, Tata Hitachi India; Subodh Dixit, Executive Director, Shapoorji Pallonji Engineering & Construction; Yogesh Sharma, Executive Director-Business Development, NBCC; and Rajan Aiyer, Managing Director, Trimble, SAARC Region.

(L-R): (Moderator) Sameer Jain, Director, Government Advisory, KPMG; Katsuo Matsumoto, Chief Representative, JICA India; Vijay Agrawal, Executive Director, Equirus Capital; and Bharat Parekh, Executive Director, Infrastructure

Research, CLSA.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• India is at the cusp of both – adopting newer technologies and the challenge of availability of skilled manpower.

• Nowadays, due to the advent of virtual project sites, implementation of projects are getting faster.

• India’s labour productivity is 1/10th of what the western world has. That said, we have a long way to go!

• Since operating machines remain an ongoing challenge for operators, manufacturers and construction companies need to address this impediment.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• India stands at a crucial juncture in the development narrative, where the country would need $4.5 trillion to upgrade the urban setup and its choked infrastructure.

• India has advanced with PPP-like model offlate, but requires alternative funding and financing options for successful implementation.

• About 80 per cent of India’s infrastructure developers at present are bankrupt.

• Financial markets are not showing much interest in Artificial Intelligence and machine learning.

SESSION I – From Cranes to Drones: Picturing the Building Site of the Future

SESSION II- Financial Leaders: Unlocking and Managing Funds

Suresh Prabhu, Minister of Commerce and Industry and Civil Aviation, GoI, unveiling the (left) 22nd CONSTRUCTION WORLD and (right) 15th INFRASTRUCTURE TODAY Annual Editions, with Pratap Padode.

• In 2015, 32 per cent of India’s population was urbanised; this is going to go close to 40 per cent. There is a huge movement from the rural parts of the country into urban centres, which will drive huge challenges in engineering and construction in urban centres.

• China, Brazil and the US, as compared to India, are highly urbanised. But India is the sleeping giant, which is a big driver of growth. • India will have over a

100 million families earning more than $35,000, which will drive a huge urban boom for high-end retail goods, logistics, healthcare, education, etc.

• Countries like Germany that already have world-class infrastructure do not necessarily

need to build more capacity. The US is pretty much an outlier in the 10 countries that we have picked out. But India can spend a few more hundred billions on infrastructure.

• Coming to the top 10 construction markets globally, India ranks fourth. If we forward to 2030, it moves on to the third position and overtakes Japan.

• We will probably see the housing market in India overtake China by 2030.

• India is the fastest growing major construction market in the world. The growth rates are near 7-8 per cent annually.

• With a lot of smart cities growing, if we take the top 20 states and the top 30 cities, we will hear of a lot more new cities in India by 2030.

“India’s housing market will probably overtake China by 2030.”- Graham Robinson, Economist and Executive Director, Global Construction Perspectives

• State Partner: Andhra Pradesh Economic Development Board • Platinum Partner: Dilip Buildcon • Official Cement Partner: Wonder Cement • Gold Partners: Tata Projects; and Shapoorji & Pallonji

Engineering and Construction • Associate Partners: Welspun Enterprises; Hyundai Construction Equipment; Godavari Paints and Patel Infrastructure.

PARTNERS

EVENT REPORT-ICF 2018

(L-R): Bhavna Saxena, Andhra Pradesh Economic Development Board; Nitin Lall, Atlas Copco (India); Devyani Rana, Caterpillar India; Pradeep Sharma, Action Construction Equipment; Pavan Kumar, BEML; Hemant Mathur, Tata Hitachi Construction Machinery Co; Sandeep Singh, Tata Hitachi Construction Machinery Co; BKR Prasad, Tata Hitachi Construction Machinery Co; Deepak Garg, SANY Heavy Industry India; Ajay Aneja, CASE India; Jasmeet Singh, JCB India; HS Kim, Doosan Bobcat India; Manjunath S, Doosan Bobcat India; Asit Patel, Ammann India; and Amit Bansal, Caterpillar India.

The glittering ceremony awarded 13 winners from the equipment industry. Special Guest Bhavna Saxena, Special Commissioner, Economic Development Board, Andhra Pradesh, praised all the winners for their efforts and hard work in achieving newer heights in their respective segments.

In an opening note, Pratap Padode, Founder & President, FIRST Construction Council, said,

“Sales of construction units are expected to rise from 76,000 units in 2018 to 120,000 units by 2021, taking the $5 billion industry to well above $9 billion.”

Deepak Garg, Director and CEO, SANY Heavy Industry India, received the EQUIPMENT INDIA Person of the Year 2018 trophy. He said, “I am thankful to our customers to have trust and confidence in our brand and products.”

The eminent jury comprised SP Rajan, Head-Plant & Equipment, L&T Construction; Neerav Parmar, VP, Shapoorji Pallonji Real Estate; Rajesh Nath, MD, VDMA India; Samir Bansal, GM-India, Off-Highway Research; Sameer Malhotra, CEO, Shriram Automall India; Farid Ahmed, DGM Marketing-Asia Pacific, Middle East, Africa, Apollo Tyres; and Kennady V Kaippally, Country Manager-BU Mobile and Wind Solutions, Bonfiglioli Transmissions.

• CASE India in Compactors • JCB India in Backhoe Loaders • Action Construction

Equipment in Mobile Cranes • BEML in Crawler Dozers and

Rigid Dump Trucks • Caterpillar India in Wheeled

Loaders and Motor Graders • Doosan Bobcat India in

Skid-steer Loaders • Ammann India in

Asphalt Finishers• Tata Hitachi Construction

Machinery Co in Crawler Excavators and Mini Excavators

• Atlas Copco in Mobile Compressors

WINNERS: THE BESTSELLERS

6th Annual EQUIPMENT INDIA Awards and Global Leaders Forum

(Right) Deepak Garg, Director and CEO,

SANY Heavy Industry India, receiving the

EQUIPMENT INDIA Person of the Year 2018

trophy from (left) Sandeep Singh, MD,

Tata Hitachi Construction Machinery Co.

(L-R): Pratap Padode with (Moderator) Janice Tuchman, Editor-in-Chief, ENR; Sunil Takyar, Managing Director, Bechtel India; Elizabeth King, Director-Middle East and South Asia, Mott MacDonald; Ravi Sehgal, Chairman, EEPC India; DK Sen, Whole-Time Director and Senior Executive Vice President (Infrastructure), L&T; and Rohit Modi, CEO, Essel Infraprojects.

(L-R): Presentation by C Sundhar, Chief Engineering Officer, L&T; and Steven Boyce, Director-Opertaions, Turner International-India.

• Title Partner: Apollo Tyres

• State Partner: Andhra Pradesh Economic

Development Board

KEY TAKEAWAYS • There is shift in global economic power. It can be seen that there is a growing

nationalistic and protectionism tendencies across the globe.• Due to lack of opportunities in India 2012 onwards, many companies

ventured in to the Gulf countries as a part of their strategy.• While venturing into foreign markets, companies must take into consideration

country-wise risk analysis. • Companies have now started strategising their hiring requirements.

KEY TAKEAWAYS • A tribute to the statesman of the country who

integrated 565 princely states into one Nation.

6th Annual EQUIPMENT INDIA Awards and Global Leaders Forum

Trends from the Top: World View and Recent Strategic Moves

Presentation on the Statue of Unity

• 182-m-tall Statue on Sadhu island.• 210,000 cu m concrete; 70,000 MT cement; 18,500 MT

reinforced steel; 6,500 MT structural steel used for the project.

PARTNERS