Our approach to Project Management, through our wide experience in the field of real estate projects, starts from creating and establishing a well-defined execution plan for smooth execution to achieve required goal; project planning and management to enforce and encourage team work; project tracking and risk management to check on proper utilization of resources, efficiently and economically; identifying and managing integration and coordination of various agencies; regular checks of cost controls and establishing change management system to check on budget overruns; establishing quality control methods; reporting to stake holders with required information and organizing regular meetings; closing out and hand over. Suhas Ambekar, Director, Dongre Project Management Consultants Pvt Ltd shares his view with Sandeep Sharma about his company, core competencies, need and importance of project management, verticals/geographies targeted, challenges and opportunities before the project proponents in India. Edited excerpts... Could you tell us about your organisation, mission, and core competencies? Dongre Project Management Consultants Pvt Ltd (previously Dongre Associates, a proprietary firm since 1987) is providing Professional Consultancy Services in the field of Project Management, Quantity Surveying, MEP Design Services for large scale construction projects. Dongre Associates was founded by A.B. Dongre in 1987 at Vadodara on his return from Gulf. Dongre Associates grew from a humble beginning in 1987 to a firm with offices in Mumbai, Vadodara, Pune and Gandhinagar and staff strength of over 75 employees. Over the period it gained considerable expertise and recognition for providing quality services in fields of PMC, QS and MEP design. The firm was incorporated as a Pvt Ltd Company in May, 2013 in order to widen, make it broad based in its scope of services & offer better and more efficient services. Our Vision is to conceive projects based on sound engineering principles, effective time management and optimization of project cost. Our Mission is to provide leadership in management of construction project and achieve outstanding quality at optimum time, cost and resources. What is the need and importance of project management? In what way your company can provide holistic solutions in managing real estate projects in India? Every project requires efficient planning and smooth execution to achieve project objectives predefined and the very important aspect of Project Management is to always ensure well balanced Quality Triangle (Cost, Time and Scope with Best Quality) or to be precise to execute within Project Management Diamond having 4 vertices of Cost, Time, Scope and Quality; and keeping the expectation (or project objectives) always in centre for utmost Customer Satisfaction. Our approach to Project Management, through our wide experience in the field of real estate projects, starts from creating and establishing a well-defined execution plan for smooth execution to achieve required goal; project planning and management to enforce and encourage team work; project tracking and risk management to check on proper utilization of resources, efficiently and economically; identifying and managing integration and coordination of various agencies; regular checks of cost controls and establishing change management system to check on budget overruns; establishing quality control methods; reporting to stake holders with required information and organizing regular meetings; closing out and hand over. Which verticals and geographies generate business for you? We are leading Project Management Consultants, Quantity Surveyors and MEP Design Consultants working for around 30 years and providing our services to the Construction Industry, mainly western and central regions of India. We provide our services to all the leading architects, real estate developers, institutions (Govt/private), industries, local bodies etc. What are the challenges and opportunities before the project proponents in India? What level of customization can be brought to the table by your participation? The main challenges in the Construction Industry today are Finance; undercapitalization creating bad cash flows; time and ease in various clearances and approvals required; inefficient planning; cut-throat competition, etc. Indian Government’s new policies for urban development and Smart Cities initiatives have given boost to the Construction Industry. The Government is trying to streamline the process of approvals and clearances through various initiatives. However, due to Demonetization, we feel the Construction Industry will undergo negative influence due to downward correction for some initial months but will be beneficial in the long run. How far the key performance indicators (KPIs) are likely to change for Infrastructure / Real Estate Developers once Dongre PMC is on board? With our expertise in PMC and QS, we would be able to prepare the realistic budget, tracking of project execution for cost, time and quality parameters set. Could you share with us actionable insights that prompt companies to explore your services or give repeat business? Proper Project Management is utmost important for any project to be successful. The need of the day is to have expert PMC for efficient execution, quality monitoring, effective cost and scope management, implementation of value engineering aspects and timely completion. The Government of India is laying emphasis on building 100 smart cities in India. What is your take in the demand/supply scenario for project management in the changing realty and infrastructure space? We are keenly looking towards Indian Government’s new ‘Smart Cities’, ‘Affordable Housing’ and ‘Infrastructure Development’ projects, we wish to be among one of the key players for enactment of these projects. We are already providing our services in the construction of affordable houses scheme under Mukhyamantri Awas Yojana in Rajkot initiated by the Rajkot Municipal Corporation; having around 4700 dwelling units spread over 4 packages and construction cost of Rs 400 Crore (approx.) Could you provide us insight about the emerging global trends in the project management space? Rapidly changing Construction Industry due to technology development and ease of availability of technology has put pressure on PMC and those who are adopting these changes will only survive. Now-a-days paperless offices and working is emerging very fast as environment friendly. E-tendering, more and more use of software tools for document management etc. are being implemented at almost all the places and we have already adopted the same from a decade or so. We are also trying to implement the fast developing and widely accepted BIM scenario for better control on our projects, be it Quantity Surveying or Project Management and, of course in MEP designing. Today’s major trend is for constructing Green Buildings and we are having experience of working on various projects with Green Concept. Who are your major clientele in India? Our major clientele include Architects and professional developers of Mumbai as listed below: AMB Architect, Architect Hafeez Contractor, Architect P G Patki, Access Architect, Talati&Panthaki, MR&DR Thacker, IL&FS, Hiranandani, S. D. Corporation Pvt. Ltd., Shapoorji & Pallonji Co. Ltd., Rajkot Municipal Corporation. What kind of future do you see for Dongre PMC in India? We, Dongre PMCPL, as an ISO company is now trying to evolve through implementation of ISO 9001 2015 standards for implementation of overall quality plan and strategies. Keenly looking towards Indian Government’s new ‘Smart Cities’, ‘Affordable Housing’ and ‘Infrastructure Development’ projects, we wish to be among one of the key players for enactment of these projects. Also, we shall try to implement the fast developing and widely accepted BIM scenario for better control on our projects, be it Quantity Surveying or Project Management and, of course in MEP designing.