The event began with an auspicious lamp-lighting ceremony and dignitaries who lit the lamp were Pratap Padode, Founder and President, FIRST Construction Council, Falguni Padode, Co-Founder and Group Managing Editor, ASAPP Info Global Group, Lieutenant General Arvind Walia, Engineer-in-Chief, Indian Armed Forces, AAV Ranga Raju, Managing Director, NCC, Ratnesh Sinha, BKT, and Hardik Agarwal, Director, DRAIPL.

Sharing the current and future industry perspective, Padode said, “As of July 2023, a rural road length of 7,42,398 km road length was constructed at a rate of 91 km per day at an expenditure of Rs 3.06 trillion, which is much ahead of 80 km per day in March 2014 – which has gone up by three times.” To highlight the government’s commitment to infrastructure investments, he highlighted how the government capex was expected to reach 4.9 per cent of GDP in FY24 as compared to 1.7 per cent in FY14.

The jury members, comprising industry leaders and analysts, who played a crucial role in selecting the winners from the various categories are Dr Anil Kashyap, Director General, NICMAR; Akhil Gupta, CEO and Executive Director, Shapoorji Pallonji; Jagannarayan Padmanabhan, Senior Director – Transport, Logistics and Mobility, CRISIL; Maneesh Yadav, MD and CEO, ASK Financial Holding; Bharat Parekh, Executive Director, CLSA; Vijay Agrawal, Director, Equirus; Suneet Maheshwari, Founder and Managing Partner, Udvik Infrastructure; Professor Albert Thomas, Assistant Professor, IIT Bombay; BR Parthasarathy, Senior Vice President, Tata Consulting Engineers and Anup Mathew, Senior VP and Business Head, Godrej Construction.

The prestigious “Construction World - Person of the Year (Private Sector) Award” was the most highly awaited moment of the entire day and the award went to AAV Ranga Raju, Managing Director, NCC.

Larsen and Toubro (L&T) won totally five awards in the categories of “Largest & Most profitable construction company”, the “Most Admired” category, for L&T Construction & Mining Machinery and two awards in the ENR Awards.

Other Outstanding Performers

Another significant event was the unveiling of the 27th Anniversary issue of Construction World magazine. With the captivating theme of “SKILLING”, this year’s Anniversary Edition boasts insights from 23 industry leaders, emphasising the growing need for a broader spectrum of skills, upskilling, and reskilling, especially in the era of artificial intelligence.

The Guest of Honour, Lieutenant General Arvind Walia said, “The convergence of automation, artificial intelligence, robotics, and other cutting-edge technologies are reshaping every aspect of construction – right from concept and design to execution.” He opined that better representation of women with their empathy, knowledge, and skills would help the construction industry grow better and higher.

Promising to provide valuable data to industry professionals in terms of an information management platform for construction projects, Tanveer Padode, Head, Digital ASAP Info Global Group, unveiled the group’s future plans and said, “We're glad to present to you Impact, which stands for ‘Information Management of Projects awarded, conceptualised, contracted and tendered’. From December 1, you'll have all this information as to what's happening, where, who's the project manager, who's the person in charge, and how to get in touch with this person. We'll help you with procurement and help you find professionals and consultants for whichever sectors - all at the click of a button.”

Summing up the event, Pratap Padode said it was, akin to Chandrayaan, ‘a Star-studded event’.

Pic captions: CW Winners: WILL GIVE LATER. KEEP SPACE

CW Annual issue launch
Launch of 27th Anniversary issue of Construction World. From L-R: Hardik Agrawal, Director, Dineshchandra R Agrawal Infracon; Jagannarayan Padmanabhan, Senior Director – Transport, Logistics & Mobility, CRISIL; Suneet Maheshwari, Founder and Managing Partner, Udvik Infrastructure; Bharat Parekh, Executive Director, CLSA; Pratap Padode, Founder & President, FIRST Construction Council; Lieutenant General Arvind Walia, Engineer-in-Chief, Indian Armed Forces; B R Parthasarathy, Senior Vice President, Tata Consulting Engineers; Falguni Padode, Co-Founder, and Group Managing Editor of ASAPP Info Global Group; Vijay Agarwal, Executive Director, Equirus Capital; and Ratnesh Sinha, BKT.

CW Person of the Year 2023: AAV Ranga Raju, Managing Director of NCC.