Public sector NBCC enjoys Public Works Organisation (PWO) status, which gets it government projects on a nomination basis with fixed margins. The PSU is in a sweet spot now as the Central and State governments look to redevelop old properties, railway stations and use their vacant land bank to promote affordable housing. BusinessLine caught with the company’s CMD Anoop Kumar Mittal to get a low down on NBCC’s pan- India plans. Excerpts:

How is NBCC assisting the government’s ‘Housing for All’ mission?

We are looking at using land of sick PSUs, government departments and Railways for housing. NBCC is preparing detailed project reports (DPRs) for affordable housing across the country. We are working on five to seven land parcels of 50 to 100 acres each. By December, projects will start in NCR, Kolkata and Hyderabad. They will offer a mix of affordable houses, higher category homes and commercial space.

Which are your newest projects?

HMT Watches has offered us a land parcel of 30 acre in Nainital for affordable housing. In Mumbai’s Wadala, we will soon start a project on 40-acre land parcel of Finance Ministry to develop housing and office space. There will be a total of 2000 houses of which, 30 per cent will be for general public.

NBCC is also building convention centres in 10 African countries including Niger and Zambia as part of the Indian government’s ₹2500 crore project. We will start the work in one or two months.

How do you plan to utilise your own land bank of 170 acres?

We had bought these land parcels at market rates for commercial purposes. We will use them depending on market requirements ensuring maximum profitability.

Already, work is underway in Lucknow, Kolkata, Bhubaneswar and Kochi, and we hope to complete them by December. There are 32 land parcels and look forward to complete them in the next four to five years.

You are working on many redevelopment projects. How many are currently under way? What does your order book look like for

FY 19?

We have nine railway station redevelopment projects including Gomti Nagar, Charbagh, Tirupati, Goa, Pondicherry. Besides, there are 10 big-size redevelopment projects of ₹40,000 crore to ₹50,000 crore. Our order book stands at about ₹80,000 crore.

What is the status of Dharavi re-development?

We have offered to be the project management consultant to the Maharashtra government and have been in discussions since the last one year. But nothing has been finalised yet.

What kind of margins do you charge over contracts?

We take 8 to 10 per cent as NBCC charges and if there is any sale component, then we take 1.5 to 2 per cent as market charges.

You are doing far better than private players. What is your view?

They (private players) don’t undertake projects if the margins are under 25 per cent. But NBCC is not building for money. We are not that ambitious for profit, and that helps us.

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