L&T wins Rs 20,000-mn order

Mumbai: In what is looked upon as one of the largest real estate development projects on premium property in Mumbai in recent times, Larsen & Toubro is to develop nine million sq ft at Bombay Dyeing & Manufacturing Company’s Textile Mills and Spring Mills complexes at Worli and Wadala at a cost of Rs 2,000 crore.

It would be an all-commercial project, comprising retail, IT and hospitality space, with no residential component in it, Mr K.V. Rangaswami, Director and President (Construction), L&T, said.

The built-up area at Worli would be about 44 lakh sq ft with 13 lakh sq ft of IT space and a hotel of about six lakh sq ft. The Wadala development would be of 53 lakh sq ft, having 20 lakh sq ft for IT, besides six lakh sqft for hospitality.

Brushing aside any presumptions that L&T was increasing its focus on realty projects, Mr Rangaswami said the project exposure to infrastructure and construction for L&T’s ECC division was identical, at about 30 per cent each. “Even in airports, a major portion of the work is building the terminal,” he pointed out.

In response to queries, the Bombay Dyeing spokesperson, Ms Carolina Bajaj, said “Bombay Dyeing has entered into a framework construction and building contract with L&T to construct mixed-use developments at Spring Mills, Dadar and Textile Mills, Worli. Considered the best construction company in India, we are confident that L&T will deliver an international quality of buildings in line with our building programme braced over a period of three to four years.”

Mr Anand J. Gupta, General Secretary of the Builders Association of India, said any addition of floor space in Mumbai was welcome. However, despite the size of the commercial venture, it would have no significant bearing on the market as over five crore sqft were being built annually in Mumbai.

L&T had bought six hectares at Siruseri, Chennai; this residential venture would be of 70 lakh sqft. It was also in a 50:50 partnership with the Chennai-based developer Arun Excello for a Rs 2000-crore IT SEZ project on GST Road in the city, said Mr Rangaswami. In Mumbai, it was working with Kingston Developers and at Oberoi Gardens, he said.