The Hindu Business Line : Vascon Engg makes a foray into North

THE Rs 300-crore Pune-based Vascon Engineering on Wednesday announced its foray into the North Indian markets where it has bagged orders worth over Rs 25 crore from pharma majors Cipla, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories and Charak Pharma at Baddi in Himachal Pradesh.

The company, which has completed over 43 projects for pharmaceutical companies in the last two decades, said it is now in the process of setting up operations in Himachal Pradesh, which is currently witnessing construction work worth over Rs 1,000 crore in the pharma segment alone, thanks to special industrial packages that the State offers.

"The dealine for the completion of projects for companies wanting to avail themselves of the exemptions is 2007 and we want to tap the huge potential that this will translate into'', the Chairman and Managing Director, Mr R. Vasudevan, said, adding that the company will also leverage the boom in the region to foray into the residential segment with staff housing for various companies setting up shop there.

Over 60 large manufacturing facilities are coming up in Baddi, 50 km from Chandigarh, which is emerging as one of Asia's largest pharma and industrial hubs. Mr Vasudevan told presspersons here on Wednesday that the company has just completed Phase I of Rs 12.5-crore contract from Cipla, which recently commissioned its capsule plant in Baddi.

Work is in progress on Rs 10-crore project for Dr. Reddy's Laboratories that is setting up facilities there.

"We will also be implementing another new liquid bottling line for Cipla in the same place and we are in talks with Dr. Reddys Laboratories for its proposed speciality cancer treatment drug facility coming up in Vizag'', he said.

With over a million-and-a-half sq ft of construction work for the pharma segment alone, the company is now evolving into a turnkey player having just bagged its first turnkey contract from Martin Groves which is setting up an R&D facility in the first phase and eventually a formulations facility in Goa.

"We have the expertise in this field and we see this segment and IT fuelling our growth in the current fiscal,'' Mr Vasudevan said, adding that it expects to bag another Rs 25-crore worth of projects in the region next year.

Meanwhile, the company, which is present in the malls, multiplexes, IT and ITES segments with major projects in Pune, is also embarking on large township projects, according to Mr Vasudevan, who said the days of the stand-alone residential buildings are over.

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