Pradeep Sureka, director of the Sureka Group, dreams of high places. He is building them too. The Sureka Group has already completed several large projects and has refilled its plate with an even larger helping.

Sureka himself is sold on music. “I have always been fond of architecture and music,” he says. “I even did a course in music which I took very seriously. The music class would be fun for there were girls all around. I was also passionate about sports and played almost every game.

While I was in St Xavier’s College doing my BCom, I got hooked on to basketball, probably the only game I hadn’t played till then. Considering the amount of time I spent on sports, it’s a wonder I managed a first division in school. And the moment I joined college, I started working in our rubber factory.

Every morning after college I headed straight to our factory at Howrah and worked there till evening. I didn’t have a car so I travelled by bus. Those days a bus ticket from Park Street to Howrah cost just Re 1.

“It was around that time that my father set up his real estate business. He asked me to join in and I just loved being a part of it. Everything to do with the business seemed exciting ? conceiving the project, designing, planning, acquiring land and interacting with the architects. Although I am not a trained architect, I always had a sense of design. And I was lucky to have a good mentor while I was learning the ropes. The senior architect in our company took me under his wing. I also learnt a lot from the labourers.

“In 1980, I took over the real estate business from my father while I was still in college. The sector had just started picking up in Calcutta and real estate was recognised as an industry. My goal was to build a reputation of quality and fairness. But it was easier said than done.

“My first project was White House on Park Street. In those days, things didn’t move as smoothly as they do now. It was difficult to procure cement. Corporation laws were stringent and that often resulted in construction being stopped. It took us three-and-a-half years to complete the building.”

How did it feel? “It felt like a good job done. Customers and people around me were happy. We introduced new systems and innovations. The building still doesn’t have any shops, which is also a novel idea. Park Plaza followed and I handled the project almost on my own. I did several projects after that.

“Over the years, the nature of the business has changed. Laws have become less stringent and builders are now on to large life-style projects. The biggest thing that has happened in the real estate business in the city is, of course, South City. A consortium of six is doing the project and my company happens to be one of them. It is easily the biggest complex in Calcutta with 1,600 flats out of which 1,100 have already been sold.”

Are they expensive? “I think expensive is a relative term. South City is actually in the mid-market segment and is certainly going to be the first of many more such projects. We are doing another complex double the size of South City on the E.M. Bypass.”

“I really can’t point to any particular project and say, ‘this has been the most satisfying’. Each new project has its own challenges and poses new problems. But the problems that I have faced have been quite normal. You learn to live with them.

“Over the years, my biggest support has been my team. Most of my team members have been around since the beginning. They have stuck with me through thick and thin. And we have all thoroughly enjoyed all the challenges and hardships that came our way.

“As for the future, I am already designing an IT park in Salt Lake and have ventured into housing projects in Hyderabad. We are also doing a project at New Town in Rajarhat called the Sunrise Point. But one aspect of the real estate trade that makes me really happy is the fact that it has become professional and corporatised. There’s a lot more respectability now. It feels nice when the government invites us for meetings and you try and find solutions together.” More than the concrete edifices, this is the real house that Sureka built.