KEF Infra wants to be Tesla of construction in India
KEF Infra wants to be Tesla of construction in India
It uses robots to build walls, floors and doors and ship the precast material to customers' locations
Raghu Krishnan | Bengaluru
December 19, 2016
Dubai-based entrepreneur Faizal E Kottikollon compares his firm KEF Infra to Elon Musk's electric car company Tesla.
At KEF Infra's fully-integrated offsite manufacturing facility around 60 km from Bengaluru, in Krishnagiri, Tamil Nadu, over 400 engineers and architects design hospitals, homes and offices, using robots to build walls, floors and doors and ship the precast material to customers' locations where they are assembled. KEF offers even the upholstery and panels required for buildings from its facility.
"There is a lot of predictability, as the entire experience is controlled at the integrated facility," Kottikollon says. "It is industrial revolution 4.0, where technology is being used in redefining infrastructure."
Unlike traditional construction firms, KEF, which Kottikollon started two years after he sold his valve firm Emirates Techno Casting for $400 million to Tyco Group, looks at offering an integrated design and assembly of buildings as model that would reduce time and cut costs for customers. It uses automation and robotics and leverages sensors to bring in efficiency and ensure that quality is maintained till the product is shipped and assembled at its client locations.
Large enterprises such as Infosys and builders such as Embassy Group, who have signed KEF Infra can cut costs by up to 30%, says Kottikollon. The firm currently has eight projects from Infosys, Bosch, Embassy, Samsara Capital, and Vaishnavi Builders. It is also building the tallest clock tower for Infosys at its Mysuru campus and a 500-bed hospital in Kozhikode.
KEF Infra expects revenue to touch Rs 654 crore this year, doubling every year to reach over $1.6 billion by 2022. To achieve this, the firm expects to build around 53.5 million sq feet of building for clients and plans three new offsite manufacturing facilities -- one each in national capital region, Maharashtra, and Andhra Pradesh.
While looking to tap local contracts, KEF already has begun work at its Krishnagiri facility of building villas for a project in Dubai and a precrafted Philip Johnson Glass House, which it plans to export next year. "Exports will be a component. We already have orders," says Kottikollon.
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