Vishvaraj plans Rs 6,000 cr investment in waste water projects

MUMBAI: Vishvaraj Infrastructure plans to invest around Rs 6,000 crore over the next five years to tap the growing market for waste water treatment and expand its footprint across the country.

It expects to garner around Rs 2,500 crore in revenue from this business, the company's Chairman and Managing Director Arun Lakhani said.

Vishvaraj Infrastructure, which started off with BOT road projects in Maharashtra, has diversified into integrated water supply, waste treatment and reuse segments.

"Around 38,250 MLD of wastewater is generated by tier-I and II cities, which is estimated to grow 3.5 times to 1,32,250 MLD by 2050.

"We see this as a huge market for sewage treatment and reuse for commercial purposes," Lakhani told PTI here.

On the revenue side, he said, "Though we will continue to look at road projects, our focus will be on water business now.

"In the next five years, with the current projects and addition of a few more, we can expect up to Rs 2,500 crore revenue from this segment," he said.

He added that the company is looking at entering Rajasthan, Karnataka, Haryana, West Bengal and Bihar to take up waste water treatment and water supply projects.

Vishvaraj is currently executing water supply projects in Nagpur in Maharashtra, and Magadi, Bidar and Basavakalyan in Karnataka.

It is also executing a USD 42-million sewage water treatment project in Nagpur.

The current waste water treatment capacity in the country is only around 30 percent of the total generation, but only 55 percent of this is operational.

"This translates to an investment gap of over USD 7 billion for tier I and II cities by next fiscal year alone. We want to be known as an urban utility and focus on waste water treatment and reuse," Lakhani said.

He said sewage water needs has to be looked at as a resource as it is ultimately water that can be used by industries after treatment.

"This is a win-win proposition to create value from waste whilst contributing positively to environmental sustainability," he said.

The company, which is operating four BOT road projects, is expecting a total revenue of Rs 500 crore in the next two years.

This New is Originally Posted on ECONOMIC TIME

Vishvaraj Infrastructure’s Arun Lakhani bags 2 prestigious awards at World Water Leadership Congress

Nagpur/Mumbai: Vishvaraj Infrastructure Ltd, which is heading Orange City Waters – Nagpur’s core Water Supply Manager, has managed to bring some moments of proud to the city. In the recently held World Water Leadership Congress and Awards in Mumbai, the company headed by Arun Lakhani has managed to make the cut with two prestigious awards.

While Arun Lakhani, Chairman and Managing Director, Vishvaraj Infrastructure Ltd has been individually honoured with World Water Leadership Awards for his Outstanding Contribution towards Water, his company Vishvaraj Infrastructure bagged the award for Best Water Reuse Project.

Overwhelmed with the double honor, Arun Lakhani shared his warm greetings with Nagpur Today.

Talking to the e-newspaper, Lakhani congratulated his team saying, “This award is the recognition of my team’s hard work which put in their efforts. Its never a one person, its a team work – Satyajeet, Suresh and all of them. My congratulations to them.”

This New is Originally Posted on Nagpur Today

US, Chinese firms keen on setting up projects in C’garh: Govt

American and Chinese firms as well as other domestic industrial groups have evinced keen interest in investing in various sectors of Chhattisgarh, officials stated. A delegation of American Chamber of Commerce and US-India Business Council led by American Consul General Thomas Vajda on Monday met Chief Minister Raman Singh in Mumbai. During the second day of the ‘Make in India’ event, the Chief Minister  invited top investors to invest in Chhattisgarh. During his discussion with the American and Chinese delegations, Singh assured the delegates of providing every possible support for setting up industrial projects in Chhattisgarh. Commerce and Industry Minister Amar Agrawal, Chairman of Chhattisgarh State Industrial Development Corporation (CSIDC) Chhagan Mundra and Chief Secretary Vivek Dhand were also present. The American delegation evinced interest for making investments in road sector, modernisation of railway stations, airports, warehouses, export of frozen agricultural products, water and sewerage treatment in Naya Raipur, Information Technology and Start-ups in Chhattisgarh. Chhattisgarh Chief Secretary Vivek Dhand, Principal Secretary Information Technology Aman Kumar Singh, CEO of Naya Raipur Development Authority (NRDA) Rajat Kumar and CEO CHiPS Saurabh Kumar informed American

delegation about the facilities provided by Chhattisgarh Government to industries.

They informed that the State Government is providing free of cost land for setting up of Information Technology and mobile handsets manufacturing units. Officers also answered the queries of the delegation. The Chief Minister had discussions with more than 50 investors during the last two days and invited them to invest in Chhattisgarh. This included Managing Director of Lanco Solar Rajkumar Rai, Director of ITC Limited Sanjeev Puri, Kirloskar Group Chairman Sanjay Kirloskar, Aavesh Jain of Ruchi Soya, Pradeep Naiyyar of Autodesh, Darshan Hira Nandani of Hira Nandani Group, renowned Architect  Hafeez Contractor, Goldy Behl of Rose Audio Visual, Praveen Chheda of Sugal and Damaani Group, Pradeep Agrawal, Arun Lakhani of Vishwaraj Infastructure, and Vivek Gupta of GEPL Capital.

The Chief Minister also met noted film producers Ramesh Sippy and Subhash Ghai, and discussed about scope of film production, film city and film institute in Chhattisgarh.

An American delegation led by Consul for Political and Economic Affairs Raj Wadhwani and Ayesha Khan, Political Specialist of the Consulate General of USA in India called on senior officials of the Commerce & Industry Department of Chhattisgarh in Naya Raipur recently. In order to explore potential areas of partnership, the delegation was very keen to lay the groundwork for US companies on partnering the State and industrial units in Chhattisgarh, under Centre’s ‘Make in

India’ initiative and wanted to leverage on the State’s strengths in “Ease of Doing Business”, officials stated.

A delegation from the same office, led by US Consul General Thomas L Vajda had visited the State last year on December 9 and this was the follow-up visit on the agenda of promoting Chhattisgarh as preferred investment destination in India to US-based companies operating in India or intending to operate in India.

In a meeting at the Mantralaya with Subodh Singh, Secretary, Commerce & Industries, Wadhwani had congratulated the former and his team for emerging as one of the top States in India as per the ‘Ease of Doing Business’ ranking exercise carried out by the Government of India and validated by the World Bank.

He had also expressed his keenness in promoting the State to the US-based investors for considering it as a preferred investment destination.

The meeting was also attended by Kartikeya Goel (Director, Industries), Saurabh Kumar (CEO, ChiPS), VK Chhablani (Special Secretary, C&I), and Rakesh Shrivastava (OSD, C&I) among others.

The Director (Industries) Kartikeya Goel made a detailed presentation showcasing Chhattisgarh’s potential, key strengths and investment opportunities in the State.

He also explained Chhattisgarh’s plan to establish itself among the top three investment destinations in India in the years to come. The presentation was concluded with Chhattisgarh’s expectations from the Office of US Consulate General.

Goel had requested the delegates to facilitate ‘Government to Business’ interaction between US-based companies and Government of Chhattisgarh through US-based business associations operating in India. Cooperation in the areas of skill development, innovation, research and development and business to business interaction was also sought.

Wadhwani in his deliberation assured full cooperation in facilitating business meetings and making Chhattisgarh among top three investment destinations in India.

On December 10, 2014, an American delegation from Montgomery which was on a two-day visit of Chhattisgarh had visited the State to have a look at various  ongoing projects and completed projects in the State’s hi-tech capital Naya Raipur.

The delegation was impressed by the architecture and appreciated the authorities for preserving the culture of the State while  planning of Naya Raipur. The 18-member delegation led by Isiah (Ike) Leggett had stated that the greenery, water harvesting and better infrastructure makes Naya Raipur different from new cities.

Leggett had also appreciated the rural development scheme and skill development besides rehabilitation schemes.

A day earlier, the US delegation had met Chief Minister Raman Singh and held discussions about possibilities of mutual cooperation between Chhattisgarh and Montgomery in the field of health, herbal medicines, non-conventional energy, information technology, handicraft and biotechnology.

Leggett had consented for cooperation in various sectors the economy and expressed interest in the field of generic medicines.

On the other hand, China has expressed keen interest in extending support to Chhattisgarh Government for developing India’s ‘Logistics Hub’ in the State.

Notably, State Commerce and Industry Minister Amar Agrawal had suggested Consul General of People’s Republic of China MA Zhanwu on a visit to Chhattisgarh last month had stated that owing to its location in the heart of the country, Chhattisgarh State can be developed as ‘Logistics Hub of India’.

The Consulate General then assured that China will encourage its industrialists to extend support in development of Chhattisgarh as ‘Logistics Hub’ of India.

The Chinese Consul General along with a three-member delegation had paid courtesy call on Commerce and Industry Minister Amar Agrawal at his office in his residence. The Minister discussed with delegates about the scope of Chinese investment in Chhattisgarh.

Agrawal informed the delegates in detail about the facilities provided to investors for promoting industrial investment in Chhattisgarh.

This New is Originally Posted on THE POINEER

Arun Lakhani - A sportsman at heart and a business leader by mind

Often have we witnessed great athletes evolve in to brilliant business leaders .Jeffrey Immelt, CEO at GE played football for Dartmouth’s Ivy League squad, IBM’s CEO Samuel Palmisano was a star player on the Johns Hopkins football team and Meg Whitman, the CEO of Hewlett-Packard was the captain of her school’s swim team, played tennis, basketball and was part of Princeton’s squash and lacrosse teams.

The co-relation between sportsmanship, the competitive edge that athletics develop and the qualities of a top-notch business person has not been lost on the business world. With this in mind, it makes sense that the Managing Director of one of India’s largest infrastructure development companies, Mr. Arun Lakhani has made it his mission to promote, support and spearhead efforts towards making sports more accessible. Specifically, Badminton has been his choice of game and the state of Maharashtra his playground.

In October, 2015, Mr. Lakhani was unanimously appointed as the new president of the Maharashtra Badminton Association, taking over from Pradeep Gandhe who was captaining the organisation for a decade.

“My experience across the years with the Executive Committee and Planning Committee have given me a deep understanding of what is required of me and have also shaped my ambitions for creating better infrastructure for Badminton within Maharashtra,”,said Mr. Lakhani.

The MBA aims to bridge the gap between Indian Badminton standards and those that are upheld internationally. With more talented players entering the arena each year, there is a great need for well-equipped facilities, academies and trainers. Mr. Lakhani, also a visionary in the Public Private Partnership sector has headed several enormous projects for Vishvaraj Infrastructure Ltd., alongside the government. With his skills and experience at managing complex projects and accomplishing large scale developments, the MBA is confident of their choice

“The MBA has managed to spread the game to all corners of the state. Around 24 districts are active, which is a very positive sign for badminton. Still, we lack in providing facilities to the talented players. We don’t have enough infrastructures to accommodate more players. My focus will be on to develop the facilities and infrastructure,” said the new president while addressing a meet-the-press programmer, organized by the Sports Journalists’ Association of Nagpur.

Mr. Lakhani’s first and foremost priority will be retain players who choose to leave Maharashtra and train in other states such Hyderabad and Bangalore which offer them better opportunities. One of the first milestones would be to set up a world-class academy in Maharashtra. It’s already clear that the goals being set by the Maharashtra Badminton Association are not simply those of an organization but of an avid lover of the sport itself.

While speaking to Nagpur Today, Mr. Lakhani said, “I am not new to Badminton as a sportsman. In my college days, I held the racquet regularly and displayed my skills on the court. But now-a-days due to busy schedule at office and other activities of vital nature, the racquet has now been passed to my son. My son is now honing his skills at the court and I am enjoying his services and powerful shots from the bench as a dutiful parent.”

There will, however, be challenges along the way. The previous president Mr. Gandhe attempted at acquiring land for a long time and now this responsibility will lay in the hands of Mr.Lakhani. His dreams of turning Maharashtra in to a national Badminton hub greatly depend on his ties with the government.

In the short term, the MBA hopes to improve existing badminton complexes and encouraging more potential champions to join the sport. Problem solving at a district level is being approached with a pre-defined agenda and systems are being put in to place to ensure better communications.

It will be interesting to observe how a Badminton enthusiast and focused businessman such as Mr. Lakhani changes the face of the sport in Maharashtra as well as India.