Voltas' electro-mechanical division is poised for a remarkable burst of growth in its overseas business, with plans to reach 
Rs 600 crore in turnover by 2006. The division today has orders worth Rs 800 crore in hand and under execution. Some of these are:

• The east and west wings of the Conference Palace Hotel, Abu Dhabi (USD 46 million)

• The central plant and infrastructure facility for the Conference Hotel Palace project, Abu Dhabi (USD 55 million)

• The Al Udeid Airbase project, Qatar (USD 47 million)

• 2 district cooling plants, Abu Dhabi (USD 12 million)

• Multi-storey parking, Abu Dhabi (USD 2.5 million)

• The cyber port development project, Telegraph Bay, Hongkong (USD 14 million)

• The KCRC West Rail, Contract 212 and 213, Hongkong (USD 11 million)

All these are being managed through the division's offices in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Hongkong, Qatar and Singapore, where a managerial and engineering staff of about 150 are permanently located, as well as thousands of technicians. Apart from these, the division also employs a floating staff recruited from all parts of the world, to meet the requirements of specific projects. In the coming year, a corps of at least 500 technicians will be sent abroad from India alone, and assigned to the various projects that are already under way.

In addition to its own offices, the division also operates through joint ventures (JV) in various locations. These include Saudi Ensas, Universal Voltas (Abu Dhabi) and Weathermaker (Jebel Ali). Employing about 300 engineers and managers, these JVs generate a Rs 100-crore turnover.

The scope of work broadly covers electrical, mechanical, heating, ventilation and air conditioning, public health, plumbing, firefighting, building management, communication / entertainment / information systems, security, fire alarms, specialised lighting, medical gases and other state-of-the-art systems.

To these specialities, the ISO9001-certified division brings its capability to undertake the entire design, and then completely build the systems designed.

In various overseas projects, the division has worked with some of the world's leading consultants and project managers, such as Turner International, Mott Consortium, Scott Wilson and Kirkpatrick, Tractbell, White & Young, Bechtel Corporation and others.

The division's continuing overseas success has been acknowledged by the Overseas Construction Council of India, who have conferred three export awards for foreign exchange earned and repatriated to India, in 1997-98, 1998-99 and 1999-2000. Recently, the council honoured Voltas with the following export awards for outstanding performance during 2001-02 : 

• Maximum value of contracts secured

• Maximum foreign exchange earned and repatriated  (second best )

• Maximum foreign works secured in new areas

With the division's outstanding projections, there is every likelihood that such accolades will be repeated in coming years.