There's a new
bull in the property market. Sameer Gehlaut, the 31-year-old Chairman
and CEO of online stockbroking firm IndiaBulls announced his grand
entry into the Indian real estate sector by sewing up two big-ticket
deals to buy up prime mill lands in space-starved Mumbai. The
combined price tag: Rs 717 crore.
Cut to Delhi. The middle-class borough of
Kalkaji is not where you expect to meet one of the leading realty
barons of the country. But the four-storey Omaxe Constructions'
headquarters stands out amid the clutter and the congestion. And
when you walk into the office of Rohtas Goel, Omaxe's Chairman-cum-MD,
and glance at the wooden flooring, expensive furnishings and a
snooker table, you get the whiff of new money.
Ten kilometres away, on the sixth floor of
Arunachal Building on Barakhamba Road, another property baron
sits in another opulent office with large and expensive idols
of Balaji and Shirdi Sai Baba everywhere. This is the headquarters
of Parsvnath Developers. Chairman Pradeep Jain's office has a
tape-recorder playing Sai Baba mantras around the clock. Both
Goel and Jain have plenty in common. Both had modest starts; the
former was a contractor and the latter a property broker, who
later became a contractor. Both were unheard of even three years
back. And both have turnovers in excess of Rs 300 crore, with
projects spread across 12 cities in the country. In Hyderabad,
there's Pawan Kumar Agrawall, 47, MD, Ambience Properties, which
has a turnover of around Rs 100 crore. Agrawall has footprints
in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad, Vishakapatnam,
and Tirupati, and is comtemplating projects in Kolkata, Bangalore
and along the Mumbai-Pune expressway.
These upstarts are nipping at the heels of
established biggies like the Hiranandanis in Mumbai, K.P. Singh
of DLF and the Chandras of Unitech in Delhi, who are also in expansion
mode. Niranjan Hiranandani, MD of the Rs 750-crore Hiranandani
Constructions and the man behind Powai-Mumbai's most sprawling
and contemporary suburb-is developing a 92-storey project in Dubai.
Christened 23 Marina, the project is expected to offer the ultimate
living experience. On completion, 23 Marina will be the tallest
residential complex in the world. K.P. Singh, Chairman of the
DLF Group, recently acquired 17 acres of NTC mill land in Mumbai
for Rs 702 crore and is expected to build a commercial-retail
complex there. The Rs 496-crore DLF group is working towards a
national footprint and has started projects in 11 cities, including
Kolkata, Chandigarh, Chennai, Bangalore, Cochin and Hyderabad.
Sanjay Chandra, Director of the Rs 623-crore Unitech Ltd, is also
expanding in a big way. In Kolkata, he is setting up the city's
largest residential project (10 million square feet) at Rajarhat,
and a 5 million square feet it park. Unitech's footprint spans
Bangalore, Pune, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai and will soon do
smaller cities such as Agra, Varanasi and Mohali. The Chandras
also plan to launch a Rs 1,000-crore property fund called cig
Property Fund. "This fund will not only support smaller developers
financially, but give ideas, build relationships and add value
to their projects," he says.
"Most large developers across the country
want to have a national footprint today," says Anuj Puri,
MD, Chesterton Meghraj Property Consultants. According to Puri,
a majority of them aren't particularly keen on tying up with foreign
companies. "Banks are bending backwards to finance their
projects and demand is so high that they are sold out, often within
moments of their launch," he says. "What do I need FDI
(foreign direct investment) for?" questions Jain of Parsvnath
Developers.
However, not everyone thinks like Jain. Ravi
Purvankara, Chairman of the Rs 100-crore Purvankara Properties
of Bangalore, feels foreign investment is the next big thing in
real estate. "Foreign firms bring a sense of transparency
to a market that has a reputation for generating black money,"
he contends. Purvankara has formed a 49:51 joint venture, Keppel
Purvankara, with the Singapore-based Keppel Land. The JV will
invest Rs 1,000 crore in two ventures in Bangalore. Arun Poddar
of the Kolkata-based Rs 200-crore Poddar Projects has also tied
up with an overseas company for a township project in Bardhaman.
Says Jugal Khetawat, Director of the Kolkata-based Rs 250-crore
South City Projects: "FDI will bring in more money and also
result in the inflow of advanced building technologies. We have
tied up with a foreign company for the development of two townships
in West Bengal for which Expressions of Interest have been invited."
The fine print of both proposals is being worked out.
The reaction to the entry of foreign players
may be mixed, but intense competition among various players is
resulting in improved quality and world class facilities. "The
customer is spoilt for choice," says Sumit Dabriwal, Executive
Director of the Kolkata-based United Credit Belani Group, which
is developing a 262-acre Rs 1050-crore township just outside Kolkata.
Chandra will shortly introduce webcams at various Unitech project
sites so that buyers can monitor the progress of the projects
from their homes. Apartments in Omaxe's Forest residential complex
in Noida will each have a 500-square feet bathroom, complete with
a steam room, jacuzzi, shower cubicle and a massage chair. And
landscaping a residential complex-adding a lake here, a hillock
there-is now standard practice.
The real estate boom is fuelled by the easy
availability of finance. Last fiscal, HDFC disbursed loans worth
Rs 86,798 crore to 2.6 million families, informs Renu Sud Karnad,
Executive Director, hdfc. Quoting a Merril Lynch report, Pia Singh,
MD, DLF Retail Developers and daughter of K.P. Singh says: "The
real estate sector will add $50 billion (Rs 2,20,000 crore) to
GDP by 2010." That's great news for developers. But fierce
competition among these pashas will ensure that the consumer will
remain the real king.
-additional reporting by
Krishna Gopalan and Priyanka Sangani in Mumbai,
Rahul Sachitanand in Bangalore and E. Kumar Sharma in Hyderabad
Sameer Gehlaut
31/ Chairman & CEO/ Indiabulls
 TURNOVER:
Rs 168 crore
PROJECTS COMPLETED: Just acquired Jupiter Mills and Elphinstone
Mills in Central Mumbai.
These mark its debut in the realty sector
PROJECTS IN THE PIPELINE: Jupiter Mills, Elphinstone Mills
PROJECT CLASS: Commercial
PROFILE OF BUYERS: Rich
FOOTPRINT: Mumbai
Indiabulls properties has been
involved in two of the largest real estate deals in Indian history.
First, it acquired Jupiter Mills for Rs 276 crore. Then it bought
the 7.8-acre Elphinstone Mills for Rs 441 crore. "We believe
that the rentals that will accrue with respect to the costs that
have been incurred are fully justified," explains Gagan Banga,
Executive Director, Indiabulls. He says the company will continue
to look at any space that is commercially viable. Residential
property is not on the agenda for the moment, though. With no
indication of real estate activity slowing down in central Mumbai,
this company may just be in the news again. Indiabulls Properties
is a 51:49 joint venture between Farallon, a San Francisco-based
fund manager, and Indiabulls
-Krishna Gopalan
 Niranjan
Hiranandani
55/Managing Director/Hiranandani Construction
TURNOVER: Rs 750 crore
PROJECTS COMPLETED: 30 million square feet
PROJECTS IN THE PIPELINE: 20 million square feet
PROJECT CLASS: Residential and commercial
PROFILE OF BUYERS: Middle class to rich
FOOTPRINT: Mumbai, Dubai
Achartered accountant by qualification,
Hiranandani dabbled in textiles before real estate took over his
life in 1981. "The sector was then characterised by black
(money) transactions and uncouth people," he recalls. But
that didn't stop him from becoming, arguably, the biggest name
in the business. He finds it difficult to pinpoint the big break
in his career. "The emergence of transactions in white (money)
or having schools and hospitals in townships-every step, in that
sense, has been a break," he says. Wonder what the next big
one will be?
-Krishna Gopalan
Mofatraj P. Munot
61/ Chairman/ Kalpataru Construction
 TURNOVER:
Rs 250 crore
PROJECTS COMPLETED: N.A.
PROJECTS IN THE PIPELINE: 4.5 million square feet
PROJECT CLASS: Residential and commercial
PROFILE OF BUYERS: Middle class to high-income groups
FOOTPRINT: Mumbai, Pune
Mofatraj P. Munot's entry into
the business was facilitated by the fact that his uncle was already
in the real estate space. "I got into the business in 1961
and broke off on my own in 1969," he recalls. The Emergency
intervened and he relocated to the Middle East. "I learnt
a great deal from overseas professionals and understood technology,
project scalability and how to implement turnkey projects,"
he informs. He also got to work on projects like airports and
hospitals "where the quality orientation was very strong".
Today, his brand name is associated with plush apartments and
high-quality commercial complexes. Which was his big break? "I
think it is yet to take place," he says.
-Krishna Gopalan
 Sanjay
Chandra
33/Director/Unitech
TURNOVER: Rs 623 crore
PROJECTS COMPLETED: 40 million square feet
PROJECTS IN THE PIPELINE: 25 million square feet
PROJECT CLASS: Residential and commercial
PROFILE OF BUYERS: High-income groups
FOOTPRINT: Delhi, Gurgaon, Greater Noida, Noida, Kolkata,
Chennai, Bangalore, Pune, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Agra, Varanasi and
Mohali
An MBA from Boston University,
Sanjay Chandra is quite different from his peers in the industry.
"Real estate development is a passion with me," says
Chandra, adding that he's mainly focussed on residential projects
and IT parks. "We have been growing at 40 per cent every
year and I want to maintain that growth," he says. The project
that is closest to Chandra's heart is the 300-acre Karma Lakelands
in Gurgaon, which will have 300 homes built around a golf course.
Unitech is also building the largest mall in the country at Entertainment
City in Noida. Spread across 142 acres, it will also have an amusement
park and will be completed in 2009.
-Swati Prasad
Harshavardhan Neotia
44/MD/Bengal Ambuja Housing Development
 TURNOVER:
Rs 2,100 crore (Rs 2,000 crore from cement)
PROJECTS COMPLETED: 3 million square feet
PROJECTS IN THE PIPELINE: 3 million feet
PROJECT CLASS: Residential and commercial
PROFILE OF BUYERS: Middle class to high-income groups
FOOTPRINT: Kolkata, Durgapur, Siliguri, Shantiniketan
Harsh Neotia pioneered the concept
of public-private partnership in the housing industry, when he
undertook the Udayan project on a 25-acre plot on Kolkata's Eastern
Metropolitan Bypass in 1994. The project had three segments (for
high income buyers, middle income buyers and low income buyers)
and the profits from the first were used to partially subsidise
the latter two. This model has now become the industry-norm in
West Bengal and is even being replicated in other states. Since
then, Neotia has promoted a number of residential and commercial
projects.
-Arnab Mitra
 Rohtas
Goel
42/Chairman & Managing Director/Omaxe
Construction
TURNOVER: Rs 450 crore
PROJECTS COMPLETED: 1.5 million square feet
PROJECTS IN THE PIPELINE: 6 million square feet
PROJECT CLASS: Condominiums, townships, specialty malls
PROFILE OF BUYERS: Middle class to very rich
FOOTPRINT: Palwal, Rohtak, Raipur, Faridabad, Kundli, Noida,
Gurgaon, Delhi, Greater Noida, Agra, Lucknow, Patiala, Ludhiana,
Amritsar, Sonepat, Jaipur
He's another contractor who made
it big. Rohtas Goel started Omaxe Construction in 1987. Today,
it is present in the National Capital Region and 12 cities. Goel
is setting up townships in Lucknow, Sonepat and Kundli; wedding
malls (wedding halls and shops selling trosseau's and the like)
in Agra and Patiala; malls in Ludhiana and Amritsar; and a group
housing complex in Faridabad. His first big project was Omaxe
Executive Floors in Gurgaon in 2000. Why this fascination with
small towns? "If Mumbai can have Navi Mumbai, Delhi can have
New Delhi, then why can't Agra have a New Agra, or Jaipur a New
Jaipur?" he responds.
-Swati Prasad
Pradeep Jain
42/Chairman/Parsvnath Developers
 TURNOVER:
Rs 306.85 crore
PROJECTS COMPLETED: 7 million square feet
PROJECTS IN THE PIPELINE: 40 million square feet
PROJECT CLASS: Apartments, penthouses, bungalows, plots,
malls and shopping arcades
PROFILE OF BUYERS: Lower middle class to high-income groups
FOOTPRINT: Delhi, Noida, Greater Noida, Ghaziabad, Mohan
Nagar, Moradabad, Saharanpur, Gurgaon, Kochi, Faridabad, Bangalore,
Chandigarh, Jaipur, Sonepat, Agra and others
Pradeep Jain started out as a small-time
property broker to the Ansals at the age of 19. His first residential
project: Parsvnath Estate (Greater Noida) in 2001. Today, Parsvnath
is developing projects worth Rs 8,000 crore in 21 cities and towns
across the country. His target: sales of Rs 800 crore this fiscal
and Rs 2,300 crore by 2010. Jain, who bid Rs 621 crore for the
NTC mill land that DLF bought for Rs 702 crore, is keen on entering
the Mumbai property market and is participating in all the bids
for mill lands. He has also bid for projects in Mauritius, Singapore
and Sri Lanka.
-Swati Prasad
 Kushal
Pal Singh
74/Chairman/DLF Group
TURNOVER: Rs 496 crore
PROJECTS COMPLETED: 29.5 million square feet
PROJECTS IN THE PIPELINE: 51 million feet
PROJECT CLASS: Townships, condominiums, row houses, penthouses,
bungalows, IT parks, office complexes and malls
PROFILE OF BUYERS: High-income groups
FOOTPRINT: Delhi, Gurgaon, Chandigarh, Kolkata, Pune, Bangalore,
Chennai, Kochi, Hyderabad, Ludhiana, Jallandar, Noida, Mumbai.
Plans to enter Lucknow shortly
Kushal Pal Singh, the man behind
Gurgaon, made headlines recently when he made an entry into the
Mumbai property market by acquiring 17 acres of NTC mill land
in the heart of the metropolis for a whopping Rs 702 crore. "We
want to have a national footprint," says Singh, who is reputedly
the richest realtor in the country today. The net asset base of
the DLF Group is Rs 15,000-20,000 crore. DLF has recently launched
IT Parks in Chandigarh and Kolkata, and will soon be entering
Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Pune.
-Swati Prasad
Ravi Purvankara
48/Chairman/Purvankara Projects
 TURNOVER:
Rs 100 crore
PROJECTS COMPLETED: 25 million square feet
PROJECTS IN THE PIPELINE: 15 million square feet
PROJECT CLASS: Residential and commercial
PROFILE OF BUYERS: Upper middle class for residential,
and MNCs and large corporates for commerical properties
FOOTPRINT: Bangalore, Chennai and Dubai.
Ravi Purvankara is an inheritor
who made good. The turning point of his career came when he shifted
base from Mumbai to Bangalore in 1987. The project: the 600-apartment
Purva Park in the heart of Bangalore. "There were very few
large residential buildings back then," reminisces Purvankara,
who sells 250-300 apartments a month. He is among the first to
tie up with an overseas developer. Commenting on the 7-hectare
property he's promoting with the Singapore-based Keppel Land,
he says: "Foreign firms bring a sense of transparency to
a market that has a bad reputation for slush money and underhand
deals." Purvankara is well entrenched in Dubai and is also
considering projects in Colombo.
-Rahul Sachitanand
 Dharmesh
Jain
37/Chairman & Managing Director/Nirmal
Group
TURNOVER: N.A.
PROJECTS COMPLETED: 3 million square feet
PROJECTS IN THE PIPELINE: 15 million square feet
PROJECT CLASS: Commercial and residential
PROFILE OF BUYERS: Middle class to high-income groups
FOOTPRINT: Mumbai
Dharmesh Jain is not joking when
he says he visits his sites sometimes at 4 a.m. Real estate was
a childhood passion. "The biggest kick about being in the
business is that you see every part of your dream unfold,"
he says. The Nirmal Group has been inexistence for 30 years and
Jain entered the business straight after college in 1988. His
dream: to make Mulund the best suburb in India. The turning point:
Nirmal Lifestyle, the country's largest mall. His current passion
is a 5-star hotel he is constructing in Mumbai. "It will
be ready in the next three years," he says.
-Krishna Gopalan
C.L. Raheja
64/Chairman/K. Raheja Corp.
TURNOVER: N.A.
PROJECTS COMPLETED: About 15 million square feet
PROJECTS IN THE PIPELINE: 2 million square feet
PROJECT CLASS: Commercial and residential
PROFILE OF BUYERS: Middle class to high-income groups
FOOTPRINT: Mumbai, Pune, Chennai and Bangalore
Quiet and efficient' is an appropriate
description for the K. Raheja Corp. with a presence in Mumbai,
Pune, Chennai and Bangalore, the group is a name to reckon with
in both residential and commercial properties. Names such as Mindspace
(which is spread over a sprawling 8 million square feet), and
Raheja Vihar in Mumbai and Raheja Towers in Chennai and Bangalore
are well-known establishments. C.L. Raheja is the current head
of the group. His office said he would not meet Business Today
for this article.
-Krishna Gopalan
Anand Mahindra
50/Chairman/ Mahindra Gesco Developers
 TURNOVER:
Rs 93 crore
PROJECTS COMPLETED: 8 (Sizes not available)
PROJECTS IN THE PIPELINE: Over 12 (Sizes not available)
PROJECT CLASS: Residential and commercial
PROFILE OF BUYERS: Middle class to high-income groups
FOOTPRINT: Mumbai, Pune and Delhi
Mahindra realty & infrastructure
developers limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of M&M, joined
hands with Gesco Corporation, originally the property division
of Great Eastern Shipping, to form Mahindra Gesco Developers.
Today its projects are spread across Mumbai, Delhi and Pune, and
in most cases bear "The Great Eastern" or the "Mahindra"
brand names. Mahindra Gesco has a good mix of residential and
commercial projects. Some of its better known projects are Mahindra
Heights and Mahindra Gardens and The Great Eastern Centre in Mumbai,
and The Great Eastern Plaza in Pune.
-Krishna Gopalan
 Arun
Poddar
54/Chairman/ Poddar Projects
TURNOVER: Rs 200 crore
PROJECTS COMPLETED: 4 million square feet
PROJECTS IN THE PIPELINE: 4 million square feet
PROJECT CLASS: Commercial and residential
PROFILE OF BUYERS: Lower middle, middle and upper middle class
FOOTPRINT: Kolkata, Bardhaman
Arun Poddar pioneered the concept
of big ticket suburban projects in Kolkata. In order to entice
buyers, he devised a unique scheme: he offered to refund the entire
cost of the flat after 30 years and even bought and endorsed Indira
Vikas Patras in the names of flat buyers. "Most people cashed
out early," he laughs. His other innovations: windmills for
pumping water, clinics and Calcutta School of Music branches at
some of his properties. "It costs Rs 10 per person to provide
these facilities, but they make a middle class person's life that
much easier," he says.
-Arnab Mitra
Sushil Ansal
66/Chairman/Ansal Properties & Infrastructure
 TURNOVER:
Rs 350 crore
PROJECTS COMPLETED: 15 million square feet
PROJECTS IN THE PIPELINE: 10 million square feet
PROJECT CLASS: Townships, apartments, penthouses, bungalows,
farm houses, hotels, multiplexes, shopping malls, educational
institutions and hospitals
PROFILE OF BUYERS: Middle to upper middle class
FOOTPRINT: Gurgaon, Greater Noida, Delhi, Ghaziabad, Kundli
and Sonepat
Sushil Ansal is the man behind
several high-rise office complexes, cinema halls, shopping malls,
colonies and apartments in Delhi. Ansal Plaza in south Delhi was
the first state-of-the-art mall in the country. Now, Ansal is
building 12 Ansal Plazas across north India. The Ansal Properties
Group is also getting into tier-II cities like Kundli, Sonepat,
Panipat, Ludhiana, Jallandar, Bhatinda, Mohali, Jaipur, Jodhpur,
Meerut and Lucknow in a big way. "Kundli will be the Gurgaon
of north Delhi," says Ansal. He is also working on a new
concept-service apartments in malls. "I expect these to be
very popular, since these apartments will be close to restaurants,
shopping malls and bars," says Ansal. He also wants to take
the company global by tying up with a developer overseas. The
Ansals have developed properties in the CIS, Iraq, Thailand, Vietnam,
Myanmar and Bangladesh.
-Swati Prasad
 Irfan
Razack
52/Director/Prestige Group
TURNOVER: Rs 250 crore
PROJECTS COMPLETED: 6.35 million square feet
PROJECTS IN THE PIPELINE: 2.65 million square feet
PROJECT CLASS: Single family residences, apartments, villas,
row houses, software campuses and retail facilities
PROFILE OF BUYERS: Middle class to high-income groups
FOOTPRINT: Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad
From humble beginnings in the textile
business, the Razack brothers, Irfan and Rezwan, have built a
Rs 250-crore realty business. The Razacks have seen Bangalore
morph from just another town in south India to the bustling technopolis
it is today. Their creations include marquee names in Bangalore
such as the Forum Mall, Angasana Spa and UB City. The group is
also expanding rapidly in Chennai and Hyderabad. Irfan is now
expanding into construction-related areas such as property and
construction management, which aims to provide a slew of support
services for buyers, ranging from power supply, payment of bills
and maintenance of common infrastructure.
-Rahul Sachitanand
C. Subba Reddy
50/Managing Director/ Ceebros Property
Development
 TURNOVER:
Rs 125 crore
PROJECTS COMPLETED: 3 million square feet
PROJECTS IN THE PIPELINE: 6 million square feet
PROJECT CLASS: Residential apartments
PROFILE OF BUYERS: Middle class to high-income groups
FOOTPRINT: Chennai. Plans foray in other southern cities
C. Subba Reddy started with small
projects around Chennai and gradually built up his Rs 125-crore
business over the last 27 years. "I perceived the need for
high-quality compact apartments in Chennai and decided to focus
on that segment," he says. Rather than any single project,
Reddy claims close contacts with clients (including one family,
of which three generations bought flats from him) is the reason
behind his success. Reddy has now entered the hospitality industry
with a Rs 40-crore, 110-room 5-star hotel called Rain Tree. "We
are also getting into the promotion of townships, schools, hospitals,
auditoriums and IT parks," he says.
-Rahul Sachitanand
 Lalit
Kumar Jain
42/CMD/ Kumar Builders
TURNOVER: Rs 100 crore
PROJECTS COMPLETED: 10 million square feet
PROJECTS IN THE PIPELINE: 3 million square feet
PROJECT CLASS: Residential, commercial, office spaces,
IT parks and multiplexes
PROFILE OF BUYERS: Middle class to high-income groups
FOOTPRINT: Pune, Mumbai and Bangalore
He inherited his company from his
father, but Lalitkumar Jain was instrumental in making it one
of Pune's largest real estate promoters. Over the years, he has
sold properties to 13,000 customers in Pune and is now expanding
to Mumbai and Bangalore. His forthcoming projects range from residential
and office spaces to multiplexes, retail outlets and IT Parks.
Commenting on the fads that keep changing every few years, Jain
feels that what starts out as a fad very often ends up being a
necessity a few years down the line. His goal: to live up to his
company's tagline-We build trust.
-Priyanka Sangani
Pawan Kumar Agrawall
47/Managing Director/Ambience Properties
 TURNOVER:
Rs 100 crore
PROJECTS COMPLETED: 1 million square feet
PROJECTS IN THE PIPELINE: 3 million square feet
PROJECT CLASS: Independent houses, row houses and commercial
complexes
PROFILE OF BUYERS: High-income groups
FOOTPRINT: Hyderabad, Secunderabad, Pune-Mumbai expressway,
Kolkata, Bangalore, Tirupati and Visakhapatnam
Ask for swapnalok, a shopping-cum-commercial
complex, in Secunderabad and chances are that nine out of 10 people
will guide you to S.D. Road where it has been in existence since
1987. Taking off from this first project, Pawan Kumar Agrawall
has come a long way. Another project, Whisper Valley, near the
tony Jubilee Hills area of Hyderabad, is another landmark. In
the pipeline is a mega residential township project on the Pune-Mumbai
Express Highway comprising 1,750 independent villas and town houses,
1,800 apartment units, club houses, recreation facilities, a super
speciality hospital, an international school and a shopping mall.
He also has projects on hand in Kolkata, Visakhapatnam and Tirupati.
-E. Kumar Sharma
 P.N.C.
Menon
57/Chairman/ The Sobha Group
TURNOVER: Rs 1,000 crore
PROJECTS COMPLETED: 6 million square feet
PROJECTS IN THE PIPELINE: 8 million square feet
PROJECT CLASS: Townships, condomimiums, town houses, row
houses, bungalows, offices, IT parks, malls
PROFILE OF BUYERS: Middle class to very rich
FOOTPRINT: Bangalore. Planning to expand to eight cities
across the country by 2009
In 1976, a 28-year-old small-time
interior decorator from Kerala landed in Muscat with Rs 50 in
his pocket and dreams of making it big. "I remember driving
around in a non-air-conditioned pick-up truck (in 50 degrees Celsius
heat) because I couldn't afford a vehicle with an AC," says
Menon. But his luck turned and he soon became a big building contractor.
In 1993, he decided to foray into his motherland. "Bangalore
was then just taking off and we decided to operate from here,"
he says. Today Sobha builds annually six million square feet of
residential and commercial space every year. The boy from Kerala
has come a long way. | 
