Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Friday advised National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC) to participate in commercial bidding for taking up projects of Indian Missions in various countries by talking to people concerned in the External Affairs Ministries and Mission heads. Complimenting the Maharatna company for its rapid growth over the last three years with a total work order of about Rs 70,000 crore, the Minister asked NBCC CMD AK Mittal to seriously explore overseas opportunities. Puri commented on the NBCC during a review meeting on Friday. He asked NBCC to think even bigger and increase its international profile in the context of construction sector having been opened to FDI and consider getting listed on foreign bourses, being a three billion dollar company.
The Minister also enquired about the core competencies of NBCC and measures being taken to further improve its efficiency of performance. He asked Mittal to furnish details of employment generation both formal and informal further to its increasing volume of projects. NBCC is one of the most sought after companies on the bourses with the share price surging over 80 per cent in the past one year.
Mittal informed the Minister that NBCC's work orders have increased from Rs 12,000 crore in 2013 to Rs 70,000 crore now with market cap of over Rs 20,000 crore. NBCC also informed the Minister that it will redevelop Sarojini Nagar, Netaji Nagar, Nauroji Nagar projects in the national capital. The project, with an estimated cost of
Rs 32,835 crore including maintenance and operation costs for 30 years, will be implemented on self-financing basis by sale of commercial built up area of 8.07 lakh square metre constructed in Nauroji Nagar and parts of Sarojini Nagar by NBCC as a part of the project.
NBCC is developing a similar Rs 5,298-crore GPRA project in East Kidwai Nagar, with the project scheduled to be completed by December 2018. It has recently completed a similar GPRA project in New Motibagh.
In June this year, NBCC auctioned a 2.83-lakh sq ft office tower with 10 floors in an upcoming commercial project at Nauroji Nagar in Delhi for
Rs 1,100 crore. The office space has been auctioned to five companies - PFC, HDFC, HPCl, SIDBI and Energy Efficiency Services.