ARSS Strengthening Country's Infrastructure Development
Please introduce ARSS Infrastructure to our readers, its evolution to reach the present status, its important business areas and total market cap.
ARSS Infrastructure Projects Limited (ARSS) an ISO 9001:2008 certified company was established in 2000 and since then it is recognized as a leading construction company in the field of Infrastructure Development mainly in the rail and road sectors.
Our ability to successfully perform time and again across the railway and highway sector has made us the preferred ones not only in Eastern India but also in Southern and North-Western parts of India covering fourteen states.
The company gained experience in construction of highways and roadways, expertise in construction of rigid and flexible pavement roads along with construction of all types of cross drainage works including major road bridges.
In a short span of ten years, the company has diversified its field of activities in other spheres, in regard to developing infrastructure facilities related to Central and State Govt. organizations viz. CPWD, State PWD and PSU’s like Rites Ltd., Ircon International Ltd., Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd. including Multinationals and Corporates.
With present turnover of over Rs.1000 crores, the company has emerged as a major contributor towards growth of Infrastructure related activities in the country.
Who are company's national and international joint venture partners?
Our JV partners include Private Parties, Public Sector Undertakings and International Companies. Some of our Private sector JV partners include Harish Chandra (India) Limited, Triveni Engicons Private Limited, Kalindee Rail Nirman (Engineers) Limited, Patel Engineering Ltd., Rohit Kumar Das Construction Private Limited, Backbone Enterprises Ltd., Atlanta Ltd, Som Dutt Builders, Niraj Cement Structural Ltd. and A.N.Prasad Rao while Rites Ltd. is our Public Sector Partner: We have also made international joint ventures with PT Adhikarya (Persero), Indonesia, Mir Akhter Hossain Limited, Bangladesh and Parisha Trade System Ltd., Bangladesh.
Based on the eligibility criteria of the projects, we bid for the contract either on standalone basis or through joint ventures. Normally, we enter into joint venture partnership, where some special technical requirement is needed or where we do not qualify our own credentials.
Over the years, the company has been successfully executing important projects in roads, highways, bridges, tunnels, buildings, irrigation and earthworks. What are the important projects in hand? Is it possible to enumerate some of the successful stories of projects completed so far?
Currently, we have number of World Bank projects in hand including Chandbali-Bhadrak-Anandpur road (Km. 0/0 to 45/0 of SH-9 and Kms. 0/0 to 50/0 of SH-53) work, Berhampur-Taptapani (Km. 0/0 to Km. 41/0 of SH-17) project and Bhawanipatna to Khariar (Km. 2/0 to Km. 70/0 of SH-16) works.
Additionally, it bagged Rail Infrastructure Works of Jindal Steel and Power Ltd., Cuttack – Paradeep road (SH-12) from 0.00 to 43.00, and Cuttack – Paradeep road (SH-12) from 43.00 to 82.00. Our company is also working on numerous ADB projects that includes construction for Roadbed in connection with doubling of railway line between Barang-Rajatgarh (25 Km), Cuttack-Barang (12km) and 3rd line between Barang-Khurda road (35km) in the State of Orissa, etc.
ARSS worked on many prestigious projects and have several success stories in its basket. Some of them are completion of track linking, signaling work for 110 Km in Tomka-Keonjhar line, completion of 3 packages of work track linking for NTPC-SIPAT work in Chhattisgarh, Rail connectivity and inplant rail network at Vedanta Aluminum Ltd. at Lanjigarh, Orissa, Substructures of 5 bridges on Rajatgarh-Barang of East Coast Railway, Completion of BRTS-I in Jaipur city, a pioneer work, and so on.
ARSS Infrastructure has been associated with IR executing's every type of work starting from survey, design to completion even on EPC basis, so much so that the company has been able to earn Moody International Certification for construction of civil works. Please shed light on the ongoing railway infrastructure projects and also on the recently awarded contracts/projects?
ARSS has completed many important projects for Railways. Some of the projects currently being executed by the company for East Coast Railway is-Construction of Roadbed in connection with doubling of railway line between Barang-Rajatgarh (25 Km), Cuttack-Barang (12km) and 3rd line between Barang-Khurda road (35km) in Orissa, Construction of Major Bridges in connection with doubling of railway line between Barang-Rajatghar (25km), Cuttack-Barang (12km) and 3rd line between Barang-Khurda road (35km) Orissa, etc. For North Western Railway, ARSS work in hand include construction of minor bridges and construction of Broad Gauge formation between Dausa and Lalsot in connection with Dausa-Gangapur city New Broad Gauge line project, and Construction of Broad Gauge formation and Minor Bridges between Lalsot and Gangapur City in connection with Dausa-Gangapur city New Broad Gauge line project.
For North East Frontier Railway, company is doing Civil Engineering works including P.way works in connection with construction of new BG Railway line from New Maynaguri (West Bengal) to Jogighopa (Assam). And for Central Railway, project under execution are construction of major bridges (3nos.) with PSC superstructures (12.2m) post tensioned solid slabs as per RDSO drawing. Other work include Earth work in embankment, cutting, including Bridge approaches, trolley refuges, Blanketing Materials, Construction of Side Drains etc. and Construction of Minor Bridges from Kms. 136 to kms. 144 in Pen-Roha section of Panvel-Pen-Roha Doubling Project.
For Southern Railway, project in hand is doubling of BG track between Chengalpattu and Villupurum- and also proposed construction of major bridges – foundations substructure and superstructure for bridge.
The company has an impressive order book status. What is company’s competitive strength in terms of manpower, equipment resources that despite recession has been marching ahead focusing on high growth opportunities while maintaining performance and competitiveness in business?
The Company has a strong order book with contract work of Rs. 2788 crore as on 31.3.2010. Our competitive strength is the availability on its rolls highly experi- enced competitive engineering personnel having own machineries, equipments and testing facilities besides having quality control and quality assurance as its principle of the work besides executing the projects within the minimum possibility period in spite of adverse site concessions.
We have a large fleet of strategic construction equipment assets. We believe that our investment in equipment and fixed assets is an advantage, which enables us to rapidly mobilize our equipment to project sites as needs arise. As of March 31, 2010 our total investment in plant, machinery and equipment is above Rs. 286 crores. We are in the process of acquiring more equipment depending upon the need of the projects and our clients.
We have crusher plants at eight locations in various districts of Orissa and many crushing plants outside Orissa, and equipment storage, maintenance and repair facilities in Crusher plants are required for quarrying and crushing granite stone to produce required sizes of rock products as per our client’s specification, be it for railway track ballast or highway work or any other civil construction work.
We own various high-tech and modern construction equipment comprising Hydraulic Excavators, Tippers, Excavator cum Loaders, Vibrator Rollers, Vibrators, Soil Compactors, Motor Graders, Hot Mix Plants, Concrete, Batching Plants, Wet Mix Plants, Transit Mixtures, Cranes and other miscellaneous Equipment. A large number of these equipments are also imported from outside the country.
We plan our machinery equipment right from the tender stage and place orders for the new machinery required as soon as we find that we are the lowest tenderer.
The Government has set the target of spending $1 trillion in Indian Infrastructure in the 12th five year plan—is your company well positioned to grab the emerging opportunities in the Infrastructure sector?
We, ARSS Infrastructure Projects Ltd. are eager to contribute our mite in the infrastructure development of the country. It does not matter whether we are in a position to grab the emerging opportunity in the infrastructure sector, but it is our cherished goal to contribute our mite in the national development through building infrastructure.
How do you look at the future of ARSS Infrastructure in the next 3-4 years as one of the top infrastructure service providers in the country?
During 2009–10, we had a turnover of Rs.1006 crores and now we are planning to achieve a Turnover of Rs.1800 crores during 2010-11 and hope to reach Rs.5000 crores per annum turnover in the next 3-5 years.
Through this Journal what message you would like to give to the industry conveying your commitment to execute projects with consistently best in class quality assurance and cost control as per requirement of your clients?
Our message to the industry is to serve the nation with utmost sincerity ensuring quality execution and timely completion of works so that the nation can derive the benefits of development.
NBMCW September 2010
