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I ‘ve just Started
At his age and with his achievements, it is easy for people to retire on some hill station. But Dr GV Krishna Reddy is thinking about the next larger step. ‘How fast can we run from now on?’ - he asks his team after sweating it out on a tennis court. Niranjan Mudholkar meets him in hyderabad to find out what drives one of India’s finest entrepreneurs
Right at the beginning of the interview, I thank him for giving me time despite being very busy. “No, I am not busy. I have all the time,” pat comes the reply. The implication – ‘I practice time management’. And why not? With projects worth more than Rs24,000 crore under execution, Dr GVK Reddy has every right to be very busy. But he finds time to play tennis every day - and even bets Rs100 on his matches! (That used to be Rs10 till recently).Story continues below 
And it was actually another bet during his school days that transformed GVK from a naughty prankster into a successful student. 
He finds time to personally visit project sites – whether it is the Mumbai Airport or the difficult to access Goriganga Hydel Project. That’s a habit he developed as a youngster working on projects like the Nagarjunasagar Dam and Srisailam Dam. He recalls working on those projects very fondly. You think he is getting nostalgic after all. But wait. He actually uses the memories to further motivate himself rather than getting sentimental about it.
Achievements give him sleepless night. “When you achieve something, it brings more responsibility with it,” he says adding “Now, you have to achieve something much more than what you have done previously.” And this comes from a man whose parents had put restrictions on his playing because he was never serious about anything including studies. ‘This boy is useless; he is good for nothing,’ declared an astrologer before GVK was 13. Of course, things were to change when he would turn 14. And they did.
“We have identified more airports and are working on them,” he says when asked about the bigger implications of acquiring 29% stake in the Bengaluru Airport. “We keep a low profile but are aggressive. We like to shock people,” he adds. Now you know why he says “Wait and watch,” while talking about his interests in railways and seaports. By now, you have forgotten his age. It is this youthful spirit that comes across strikingly when he says,” I have just started.”
In a very dynamic journey spanning almost two decades, your organisation has been involved in several diverse projects. How has it evolved over the years?
Let me answer your question a little differently. As a youngster, I got into our family business of construction. I was lucky we were doing the works for projects like the Nagarjunasagar Dam and the Srisailam Dam. Nagarjunasagar is the second largest dam in the world. That’s where I got my training and I consider that as the best experience of my life.
Building the dam, working in the river, working the floods, are some of the things that I can never forget. Those are very strong memories. I remember a big bridge being washed away during heavy floods once. It took away several lives with it. The dam overflew and the bridge was in the downstream. Luckily for me, I was standing where the bridge just started. In another instance, people were working on a scaffolding inside a tunnel. The scaffolding collapsed and people were washed away. I can never forget that. The river, which moves like a quiet channel in other times, was flowing quite ferociously during the floods. These are the experiences that teach you important lessons in life.
It was a 24/7 job for me. Nobody had forced it on me. I was doing it because I wanted to do it. And I wanted to get involved in the action. For example, when we were doing the masonry work, we had to get stones from a quarry about 20 km away in the hills. I would travel all the way to the hills to see what was happening out there.
It is these experiences that have given me the strength to go on till today. And even today I get involved at the project sites. When I am in Mumbai every Wednesday at the airport, I don’t sit at the office. I am where the actual construction work is happening. I can see the progress myself and ensure that good quality work is happening. I can just look at the work and tell whether it is happening per the required standards or not.
And it’s not just Mumbai. I have a hydel project happening in Uttarakhand at a place called Srinagar. It is one of the most difficult projects ever undertaken due to the harsh geographical and weather conditions. But I have told my team that until the river is closed, until the foundation is done, until the tunnels are built and until the power house is done, I will keep visiting the site every month. It also motivates the team to work under the extreme circumstances. There is no road that leads to the project site. There is just a trekking track. So, we have to first build a road and in case of some equipment, we have to actually consider dropping from the air.
It is these challenges that have helped us evolve in the construction and infrastructure business. Even the Mumbai airport is one of the most difficult airports in the world to work at due to the intersecting arrangement of the two main runways. But I don’t look at problems as problems. These challenges make me work.
Basically, to answer your question briefly, it is the challenges that have helped me and my organisation evolve.
Just before the recession hit hard – around May 2008, you were planning to revamp the infrastructure business to raise more money. Tell us about it.
The other day somebody was asking me that there was a recession in the country. Things were moving very slowly. How about you? I will tell you what I told him. When there is recession or a problem, there are opportunities. If you do your homework well and keep your reputation intact, then there is no problem.
Credibility is very important in the market. If you make a commitment, ensure that you fulfil it. You should never default. Take loans if required. Make internal changes. But deliver on time or even before. This credibility has helped us. Also, our experience of realigning the projects has helped us.
During this period (2008-09) that we raised Rs1000 crore. And then later we raised another Rs700 crore. Coming back to the restructuring part, what we would like to do is create verticals that cater to each of our segments like power, airports, transportation and so on.
What is the combined worth of the projects that GVKPIL is executing?
We have projects worth approximately Rs24000 crore under execution at present. Mumbai Airport will be about Rs9800 crore, Bangalore Airport would be about Rs3500-4000 crore, Goriganga Power Project would be around Rs3000 crore, Alakhnanada is about Rs3200, Govindwaal sahib is around Rs2800 crore and then we have coal mines worth Rs1000 crore. These projects will be completed by 2012-13.
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COMMENT
I am a senior citizen having rendered a long service of 40 and odd years of service. Even in Govt service while dealing