Page 18 - April 2022

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L&T CONSTRUCTS 7-STOREY FACILITY FOR DRDO IN DLF TO INVEST `550 CR TO CONSTRUCT 1-MN-SQFT
RECORD 45 DAYS OFFICE BUILDING IN CHENNAI FOR STANCHART GBS
The Buildings Business of Larsen & Toubro has set a record Realty major DLF has invested around `550 crore to construct
by constructing the 7-storey, state-of-the-art Flight Control a one-million-square-feet office building for Standard Chartered
System (FCS) Integration Facility for the Defence Research Global Business Services’ largest campus globally. Tamil Nadu
and Development Organization (DRDO) in just 45 days using Chief Minister M K Stalin laid the foundation stone of the office
Integrated Hybrid Modular Construction Technology (IHMCT). The campus in ‘DLF Downtown’ project at Taramani in Chennai.
facility was inaugurated on March 17th, 2022, by the Hon’ble In October 2020, DLF had pre-leased 7.7 lakh square feet office
Minister of Defence, Government of India, Rajnath Singh in the space to Standard Chartered Global Business Services (GBS) and
august presence of Basavaraj Bommai, Hon’ble Chief Minister the latter has an option to take the remaining area.
of Karnataka, Dr G. Satheesh Reddy, Secretary Department of The DLF Downtown-Chennai project, spread over 27 acres and
Defence R&D & Chairman, DRDO and other dignitaries. comprising 6.8 million square feet area, is being developed by
“This facility shows that India can build anything in a short time,” DLF Cyber City Developers Ltd (DCCDL) with an investment of
praised DRDO Chairman, Dr G Satheesh Reddy, adding that while `5,000 crore. DCCDL is a joint venture between DLF and Singapore
the concept & technical design was developed by DRDO and sovereign wealth fund GIC.
detailed engineering & execution by L&T, teams from IIT-Madras In the first phase, DLF is constructing a total of 3.3 million square
& IIT-Roorkee conducted design checks and provided technical feet area, including one million square feet building for Standard
support. Chartered. The construction of 2.3 million square feet is already
A significant development to modernize and enhance the undergoing and will be completed by the end of next fiscal, while
strategic capabilities of the Indian Defence, the facility is the the Standard Chartered campus will be completed by mid-2024.
result of L&T’s unique integrated offsite and onsite construction The company has a presence in the state since 17 years
approach. “We adopted IHMCT, used for the first time in the Indian and operates the largest IT SEZ ‘DLF Cybercity, Chennai’ at
construction industry, to substantially reduce the cycle time with a Manapakkam comprising 7.2 million square feet area.
dedicated team of engineers, architects and structural designers This SEZ has contributed a cumulative export revenue of about
who have worked on it to make it a success,” remarked M V Satish, `84,000 crore since its inception and around 70,000 professionals
Whole Time Director & Senior Executive Vice President (Buildings), are working. Once DLF Downtown is completed and operational,
L&T. “We commenced the project on February 1st, 2022, and DLF will have a footprint of about 14 million square feet of
completed the superstructure including modular interiors, façade commercial workspaces in the city, making it the second-largest
and MEP exactly on schedule on March 17th, 2022, taking just 45 market after Gurugram.
days from design to delivery”, he added. A development like DLF Downtown in a location like Taramani
Constructed on a total built-up area of 130,000 sq. feet, the site should generate the income of `700-750 crore when fully
team had to coordinate with 21 off-site locations to integrate functional and around 70,000 employees will work from DLF
design, structure, architecture, and MEP services. Going forward, Downtown Chennai.
this hybrid construction system developed by L&T will help increase This project is designed with high-end specifications and has
productivity, optimize resource utilization, reduce losses due to been awarded a Platinum LEED Certification by US Green Building
wastage and speed up pace of construction. Council.

18 CONSTRUCTION OPPORTUNITIES|APRIL 2022