Building solutions company Everest Industries plans to set up its second manufacturing plant for pre-engineered buildings at Dahej in Gujarat.

With an annual production capacity of 60,000 tonnes, the plant will target projects in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh, besides parts of Rajasthan and the southern States.

The company has said it finds it difficult to tap the fast-growing demand for steel building in the West and the South with its first unit of similar capacity at Roorkee in Uttarakhand.

Manish Garg, President (Steel Building Division), said the new project entails an investment of Rs 50 crore, which will be funded equally through internal accruals and external commercial borrowing (ECB).

“Despite the economic slowdown, the demand for steel building is growing among industrial projects as they are cost-effective and can be completed faster, compared to conventional buildings,” he said. The company has an order book of Rs 250 crore, to be executed in 7-8 months, he added.

Everest maintains that it can reduce the installation time of a factory building by one-third as compared to the construction of a conventional building.

Steel buildings are factory-built and can be put in place with minimal on-site work.

This reduces the uncertainty in project schedules and accelerates project completion by almost six months, Garg added. Everest has installed over 1,000 buildings covering 40 million sq ft of built-up area in 25 States.

The projects vary from a canteen of 10,000 sq ft to a factory of over 500,000 sq ft.

The company’s clients include Britannia, General Motors, Walmart, Carrefour, Cadbury, Honda, Vodafone and Priya Gold.

suresh.i@thehindu.co.in

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