Interarch - Pioneering PEB Construction in India
A brief about Interarch Building Products Ltd, its milestone achievements since its inception in providing turnkey Pre-engineered steel construction solutions to the construction industry.
Interarch Building Products Pvt Ltd commenced its operations in 1984 and pioneered the high-end metal interior products market in India. Today, 25 years later, Interarch is a leading turnkey Pre-engineered Steel Construction Solution provider in India with integrated facilities for design, manufacture, logistics, supply and project execution capabilities for pre- engineered steel buildings.
Interarch has been the first mover in India, right from metal ceilings, to blinds, metal roofing to pre-engineered buildings. The key achievements for Interarch include the building of the largest greenfield Automobile plant for Tata Motors at Pantnagar, execution of the largest steel framed office building for Reliance, commissioning of over 900 canopies for Reliance Petroleum all over India.
Some of the major construction solutions offered by Interarch are their advanced Pre-Engineered Steel Buildings and structural systems, Interarch Light – Light Building & Framing Systems, and Tracdek Roof & Wall Systems that are used in industrial, commercial and residential building construction. Interarch also offers false ceiling systems for commercial spaces under the Trac brand. All Interarch products speak for their fine quality and are designed to withstand harsh climatic conditions. Interarch is certified as an ISO 9001:2000 company since 1999 by UL Inc. USA.
Tell us about company’s various manufacturing facilities, their locations and in-house engineering capabilities for executing a simplest shed to complicated airport ceiling and roofing structures.
Unit 2 at Rudrapur is Interarch’s flagship manufacturing facility set up in early 2005 which caters to the growing demand of pre-engineered steel buildings in the Indian market. This large facility has a capacity of over 50,000 MT and is one of the most modern manufacturing facilities in India.
Interarch Rudrapur is the only plant of its kind in India to have heavy-steel structure manufacturing capabilities which cater to large-scale industrial projects, multi-storey commercial complexes, car parks and hotels.
Interarch’s current unit in Chennai (Unit 3) is an ancillary unit servicing the Southern India with secondary structural fabrication as well as manufacturing of roof and wall profiles.
In 2008, Interarch set up Unit 4 at Kichha, Uttaranchal, which is spread over an area of 20 acres.
We are end-to-end/scalable solution providers. We have extensive design offices employing over 80 people – using specialized proprietary software and engineering technologies to design and manufacture the metal building systems and hence we do not outsource any of these design and architectural functions. We also do have a varied range of applications - Industrial and warehousing, commercial building, airports, infrastructure projects such as power, oil and gas projects and light weight economical buildings and residential modules. So that covers most of the Infrastructural possibilities in steel/metal.
What makes Interarch’s way of working in the country different from the rest of its competitors in this business?
Interarch has always been the first mover in terms of introducing new concepts and applying them to the Indian market. We are pioneers in PEB construction and first home grown Indian company to introduce window coverings – metal roofings and cladding etc. We do not restrict ourselves to just engineering or construction but we are an end-to-end solution provider and take on the designing, architecture as well as the execution as an in-house function instead of outsourcing it further. We also follow international safety standards on-site for our engineers and labor, even at the manufacturing facilities across India. We are also very conscious of the quality of the material we use. There have never been any complaints or defects in our past work, from our clients. We have worked on the Indira Gandhi International hospital in Maldives and IGI T2 as one of our very first projects back in the year 1982.
Over the year, your company has been able to develop expertise to serve the airport sector undertaking jobs for various clients in this space. Few words about this aspect.
We hold an expertise in the aviation sector. We have been specializing in airport roofing and ceilings since over two decades. Our first project was for the IGI International airport in New Delhi in 1986. Post this we have done several other projects including the Chatrapati Shivaji Terminal and HAJ terminal, roofing for various airports around the country, including hangars etc.
Interarch has been the recipient of Best Pre-engineered building project award for its work at the IGI Airport. What have been the technical attributes of the work relating to design and construction features on which this award was bestowed on the company?
The T3 mandate was probably one of the most challenging and path-breaking projects for us at Interarch. The entire scale of the operation was at an unprecedented level. It is a 7 layer roof installed over 200000 m2 roof area on the entire airport. Over 15 Tons of roofing material was laid in position in a period of 6 months. The roof is designed to cater to the high acoustic and thermal performance necessary for this facility. Through its course Interarch designed, manufactured and constructed over 8000 MT of steel in less than 8 months and also designed, procured and laid over 1.2 million square meters of roofing material to cover 200,000 sq meters of roof, one of the largest buildings in Asia. Interarch shifted an entire team of senior design, manufacturing, project management and construction experts to the DIAL site for a period of over 10 months to handle the structural steel execution as well as the roofing of the gigantic terminal building. Interarch’s safety practices were testimony to their completing over 2,500,000 accident free man hours at this site. This project was handled completely with in-house expertise. The Interarch project management team deployed more than 200 engineers at the site, including construction equipment, and over 2000 skilled workmen to execute the project work successfully with safety and quality.
T3 was the first project of the kind of magnitude handled by us or for that matter for any other PEB player in India. However, we have been specializing in airport roofing and ceilings for over two decades.
How do you look at the future of the PEB industry in the next 3-4 years?
PEB is getting its due credit as a favorable alternative construction methodology in India today. More sectors are realizing the benefits of metal over brick and mortar. The scope of metal/steel buildings is very vast for the Indian market. PEB proves to be relevant and beneficial to several construction verticals including warehousing, infrastructure, oil & gas refineries as well as group housing.
The changing perception to a long term perspective and willingness to invest in quality is working towards the growth of PEB in the Indian construction industry.
MGS Architecture September - October 2010
