PMC Projects is the brainchild of Dr Malay Mahadevia, a stalwart of the marine and port infrastructure sector. It was founded to compete in the expanding infrastructure development sector. Offering the company a lifetime of experience in the engineering sector and the knowledge of managerial operations at the highest ranks is Arvind Murlidhar Uplenchwar, CEO, PMC Projects (I) Pvt Ltd.

A graduate in mechanical engineering (BE) from the University of Pune in 1967, Uplenchwar also holds a Ministry of Transport 1st Class Motor Certificate of Competency. He began his career with the sea and ports and joined the Shipping Corporation of India and sailed until 1978. Next was a three-decade stint with the Indian Oil Corporation. He joined as a senior maintenance manager and retired as director of pipelines as well as business development. He also honed his managerial skills by attending an AMP (Advanced Management Programme) at IIM-Kolkata.

In between 2008-2011, Uplenchwar led Black Pearl Services Pvt Ltd, an on-shore oil and gas drilling company. He was also the chairman of NACE (India) section. He joined PMC Projects two years after its inception to spearhead fast growth. He has been the board member of leading companies like IOCL, ONGC, Petronet LNG Ltd, Petronet India Ltd, IOTL, etc. Apart from PMC Projects, he is also on the board of companies like Howe (India), DARCL Logistics, and Grover Vineyards.

In conversation with Charu Bahri, Uplenchwar describes how an infrastructure company can enter into a higher growth phase and best sustain its expansion mode through economic lows.

Focus on marine infrastructure: PMC Projects has successfully developed Mundra Port and further development is underway at Dahej, Hazira and Tuna ports for the Adani Group. As marine infrastructure is a key focus area, we are fortunately well placed to bag major port projects in a state with a long coastline and a strong commitment to develop port infrastructure. We are also executing brownfield port projects outside Gujarat, for Visakhapatnam Port Trust and Marmagao Port Trust. Port development is no less than township development and necessitates strong skill sets in non-marine construction as well - roads, railways, godowns, dredging, material handling systems, etc. PMC Projects possess all these skills and is in the process of entering the dredging market with the largest fleet of dredgers in India.

Domain experience:Translating a vision into reality necessitates many fundamental building blocks. PMC Projects boasts of globally competitive engineering, procurement, construction management, consulting and business-centric core teams. These highly proficient groups cut across infrastructure domains - ports, rail links, roads, water, oil and gas, material handling systems - and come together to give shape to our client's vision, from ideation to commissioning. Our experience gives us strong visualisation and problem-solving skills and logistics and engineering dexterity that can be leveraged for our next ventures.

Coping with slowdowns: Varied domain experience is a valuable asset that can tide companies through a slowdown. Companies with wide domain experience fare better when the going is tough. It's not about spreading yourself too thin but being able to bag projects in multiple disciplines. PMC Projects has coped well so far because we are mostly dependent on private-sector projects, which are still forthcoming and we are aggressively pursuing. Several sections of the infrastructure development sector have been less affected by the slowdown than other sectors of the economy. Nevertheless, we hope that the public sector swings back into action soon, as projects from this sector are good for the construction sector overall as well as the Indian economy.

Financial management: We are a debt-free private company. This helps us negotiate favourable terms with banks and financial institutions to meet our working capital needs. Also, we aggressively pursue opportunities with the idea of keeping our project cycle going. Inflows from completed projects fund new projects, and so on. Being a private company has its own benefits such as speed in decision-making and the right to keep selected information as confidential. We also practise simple but sound project management techniques to control costs. Breaking a project into manageable packages facilitates monitoring and is cost-effective to boot.

Talent management: People are the strength of any company. This makes it extremely important to find and retain talented individuals. We compensate our staff well with salary packages that are amongst the highest in the industry. More important, we provide our employees with an innovative yet competitive working environment. Talented individuals need the flexibility to be innovative as well as the push to deliver winning performances. Also, we have the right approach to project management; it's a team function. Our being well versed with its dynamics of cross-functional interaction, conflict management, decision-making, delegating work assignments and meeting management helps to create a healthy working environment.

Procurements: Securing a variety of optimally matched products and services at the least possible cost within the given time schedules is an ingredient of successful project execution. We leverage a dependable and cost-efficient supply model to procure the needs of different kinds of projects. Our team has the experience and knowhow to optimally match cost-efficient resources with specialised needs.

Tech-savvy engineers: We use the latest technology to monitor our projects 24 + 7. This includes our online contract administration system and project management tools such as Primavera scheduling software, SAP for material management and procurement, and CAD, CAM and GIS for engineering design. We also offer information and communication technology solutions in the fields of engineering automation and utility services. Our automation framework spans IT infrastructure including a data centre, network security, foundation building solutions (Intranet, Lotus Notes, antivirus, SAP, project management, GIS, Sharepoint collaboration services) and engineering applications (Staad pro, AutoCAD, Primavera, SCADA, Land Data Management). We leverage our cross-functional expertise and multidisciplinary team to create project-specific IT plans.

The USP: Our in-house expertise cutting across domains, ability to execute with speed, scale of ambition, quality of operations and approach towards delegation, especially in technical matters, make us winners.

Snapshot: Multidisciplinary projects

Adani Petronet Dahej Port: Started with the creation of a rock bund towards the sea, parallel to the GCPTCL, Birla and Petronet jetties. The 600 m jetty consists of two jetties of about 300 m each and can handle dry cargo vessels. A backup yard covering an area of 70 hectare serves as a stacking yard and for reclamation, conveying and other utilities. Its fully mechanised material handling system uses conveyors about 5 km in length, stacker reclaimers, wagon loading silo systems, etc.

Railway link: Created Indian Railway's first rail link developed in partnership with the private sector. Successfully completing the Adipur to Mundra (58 km) stretch has prepared PMC Projects for more rail infrastructure projects. This line has recently been doubled. A 6 km railway link connecting Dahej Port with the nearest railway station is in progress.

Oil tank farms: Tanks, of 4.27 lakh kl capacity, for storing almost all categories of liquid were constructed at Mundra. Planning is underway for about 1 lakh kl capacity in Hazira.

Food silos and handling logistics system: Base depot at Moga and Kaithal and five other field depots (across the country) were constructed for Food Corporation of India. The grains are stored in GI silos from where grain is loaded and unloaded. Grain is transported through both rail and road.

Fertiliser cargo complex, Mundra Port: A mechanised bagging and wagon loading system was created on the railway platform with the idea of directly loading fertiliser cargo from the vessel to the rake loading station. The system makes use of automatic bagging and stitching machines. It is intended to load a rake, that is, about 2,500 mt, in four hours.

Mundra SEZ Integrated Textile and Apparel Park (MITAP): Spread over 116 acre inside Mundra SEZ, this is the first textile park set up under the Scheme for Integrated Textile Park (SITP) of the Government of India. It offers the dual advantages of the SITP scheme and SEZ policy.

Chemical effluent treatment plant: A 2.50 mld plant treats and converts effluents generated from MITAP industries into environmentally accepted products that can be used for horticulture and other non-potable purposes. The treatment plant comprises a screen chamber, equalisation tank, dosing tank, flash mixer, flocculator, primary clarifier, aeration tank, secondary clarifier, activated carbon filter, multi-grade filter, guard pond, sludge thickener, centrifuge and sludge drying bed.

Water desalination: Water is transported from a desalination plant to the West Port storage tank through 400 mm and 300 mm diameter GRP pipes. The supply is used for dust separation, fire-fighting, potable and ship bunkering purposes. A 20 mld desalination plant is already commissioned and in use. An additional 20 mld desalination plant is under construction.

Dredging: Since our entry in the dredging and reclamation segment in 2005, we have dredged about 220 million cu m and reclaimed about 3,200 hectare.

Fact sheet

Establishment: 2005
Corporate office: Ahmedabad
Branch office: Mundra
Employees: 1,700 people (on-site and off-site)
Contracted/subcontracted labour: 300 to 400
Order book: Rs 5,200 crore
Current annual expenditure:Rs 2,800 crore
Target expenditure (next few years): Rs 3,500 crore to Rs 4,000 crore (annually)