Virendra D Mhaiskar’s journey on Indian road and highways

Known to be one of the pioneers in the infrastructure business, the journey of Virendra D Mhaiskar, the CMD of IRB Infrastructure is an inspiring tale in itself.

Virendra D Mhaiskar, who acquired an engineering degree from the University of Bombay, kicked off his entrepreneurial venture after acquiring years of experience in the family’s road building business. At the age of 27, he established his own venture in the year 1998, with the idea of making it one of India’s largest companies in the roads and highways sector.

As privatization of roads and highways in India was at its nascent stage in the 90s, his idea of changing the sector through the PPP model helped bag various projects for the company.

Under his leadership, IRB Infra became the first company to execute the BOT (Built Operate Transfer) project in India. The company constructed some of the biggest projects in the country, including the widening of old Mumbai – Pune NH-4 Highway; tolling of new Mumbai-Pune expressway, and many more. It is also known to have the largest share in construction of India’s Golden Quadrilateral project, which is considered one of the most ambitious and prestigious road projects.

In 2012, he broke into the list of Forbes – India’s richest man by bagging the 96^th spot and the 937^th position among all billionaires in 2010.

As a result of the continuous growth and quality of projects, Virendra D. Mhaiskar and IRB Infra went on to receive various awards. Mhaiskar was awarded the CNBC-TV 18 ‘Young Turk of the Year Award’, whereas IRB Infra won the ‘Essar Steel Infrastructural Excellence Award’ for the quality work implemented on the Bharuch-Surat sector of NH-8 under the highways and bridges category. IRB Infrastructure was conferred with the same award for the second time for its exemplary work on the Mumbai-Pune expressway. The company also forayed into HAM (Hybrid Annuity Model) and added 3 projects to its name.

Formulating IRB’s vision and strategy, Mhaiskar has always taken the challenges head on, even in unfamiliar conditions.  The USP, which IRB Infra could create, was implanted in its vision and dynamic strategies through an abled leadership, coupled with punctual delivery of projects.

With more than 12,000 lane Kms, along with an aggregate asset value of more than Rs 35,000 crores, IRB Infra flaunts one of the largest portfolios in this sector in India. Out of its 17 owned projects, 7 projects are under operational BOT space; 3 under HAM space; 4 projects under Tolling & Construction, another 2 projects under advanced stages of construction and 1 project under development stage. The company has successfully completed 7 concessions till date.

IRB Infra recently launched the country’s first Infrastructure investment fund (InvIT). Transferring seven of IRB’s best revenue generating projects to the fund, Virendra D Mhaiskar led the company to achieving yet another major milestone.

Virendra D. Mhaiskar was conferred on the Infrastructure Man of the Year Maharashtra Achievers Award 2017, initiated by ET Edge of Economic Times, leading business daily of Times of India Group. His visionary leadership has brought several prestigious awards and recognition for IRB Infrastructure in various fields, like Best Public- Private Partnership; Best BOT Projects; Most Safe project; Best Construction; Best Operations & Maintenance; HR Excellence; CSR Excellence, etc.