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‘Finding opportunities in a pandemic’, Hardik Agarwal, Director of Dineshchandra R Agrawal Infracon on they ensured the well being of their on-site workers during the Covid crisis

Dineshchandra R Agrawal Infracon Pvt Ltd is one of India’s leading Infrastructure Development groups in the country. Hardik Agrawal, who is the Director of the company, caught up for an exclusive conversation with NewsX. Dineshchandra R Agrawal Infracon is into development of infrastructures such as highways, bridges, water supply, and waste management networks, smart cities, […]

Hardik Agarwal
Hardik Agarwal

Dineshchandra R Agrawal Infracon Pvt Ltd is one of India’s leading Infrastructure Development groups in the country. Hardik Agrawal, who is the Director of the company, caught up for an exclusive conversation with NewsX.

Dineshchandra R Agrawal Infracon is into development of infrastructures such as highways, bridges, water supply, and waste management networks, smart cities, railways, airports, and metros. It is active in over 20 states in the country at this moment. The USP of the company is the quality of its projects, even in the limited schedule of the government. The Government of India has recognized them on various levels for completing projects ahead of schedules.

Talking about the current projects, Hardik Agrawal said that they are developing projects ranging from Greenfield airports in Northeast to metro rails in urban areas, upcoming smart cities such as Dholera smart city. They are also developing over 2000 km of highways at the moment ranging from Rajasthan to down south in Tamil Nadu, far east in Tripura ranging upwards till Punjab. “So across all the geographies and dialects of the country, we have spread our wings.”

Infrastructure has been a key asset in booming the country’s economy, said Hardik. He also added that even post the Covid pandemic, the country relied on the infrastructure projects to boost not just the labor forces but also its economy for various industrial assets. Hardik also talked about the impact Covid had on the industry. He said that the impact was primarily because of safety regulations the government imposed, which were necessary. All work and activities were at hold because of these restrictions.

The major challenge the industry faced was the labor shortage. But they mitigated the challenges by adopting a unique approach. “We really took care of our labor. He thinks this is where the industry failed. The industry forgot to take care of the people who do the hard work. What the labor required was some attention, basic facilities and every industrialist knows what is the input of labor versus its total capital in a project in India.“

The Dineshchandra R Agrawal Infracon ensured decent workable condition and facilities for the labor even in the middle of the pandemic. They ensured that their labour is comfortable staying at the project sites, the company gave them meals 4 times a day. Having these facilities at a remote project location not just boosted the morale of the labor but also ensured them they are being looked after. On the 28th of April, when projects were allowed to resume by the government of India, at 8 am, all 5000 of their labor, at their various project sites were ready to get back in action, Hardik Agrawal told NewsX.

His message to the industry is that it’s high time that everyone gets back into action, as the government has fairly relaxed all the norms for any industry or business to operate. Labour is also willing to work again. Now is the time to not think about basic cost or increasing prices but just get the work done. That is the cheapest and the fastest way to work in this pandemic era.

The Dineshchandra R Agrawal Infracon has able to meet all the expected deadlines except for some areas which are densely populated, there it has been a little difficult to get activities restarted in time. They are giving extra care to labor’s health and safety. They are providing them with proper protective equipment such as masks, sanitizers, PPE kit wherever necessary. Even during this time, they have completed projects ahead of deadlines.

Sharing his vision for the company, the young entrepreneur Hardik Agrawal said, ” The vision stems from the vision set forth by our company’s leader, by founding members of our company. They started this company with a set vision and we are embracing that as the next generation. They allowed us to be on a platform that is performing nationally. For us, the reach is an international outreach. I strongly believe that the Indian industry has grown up to such sort of technological advancements that we can take any project, geography, economy across the world. Today, we are not at any technological backseat from any company compared to anywhere in the world. We are still adapting, learning, and growing.”

He further said that the idea is to go global and they are exploring how in 15 years from now technology will lead the construction projects, be it by road printing robots or self-construction buildings. Finally, speaking on how he is amalgamating his vision with what the government expects, Hardik said that the government is very keen on boosting infrastructure in various sectors, not just for transport. Transport is the key driver of the infrastructure sector. “Our honourable Minister, Mr. Nitin Gadkari, has been a remarkable and very bold influence in giving us the motivation to proceed further and perform better every day.”

He also said that apart from highway infrastructure, great advancements have been done in water infrastructure which is the need of the hour. A good water network is significant to ensure the three R’s – Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle of waste and water in our country. This will not just generate a significant economic boom, but it’s incredibly important from an environmental perspective.

Director of Dineshchandra R Agrawal Infracon said, “There should be efforts to ensure that there is no water shortage, maybe from 10 years now, that should be the goal of our infrastructure industry.” He also said aviation and railways are developing their efficiency of the system itself. The current vision of the government to go further in the infrastructure is a very right decision.”

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