They have been erecting towers of strength and succour in the city for the past seven years and adding value to Calcutta?s ever-expanding brick-and-mortar matrix. Now, the Rs 400-crore-turnover Ahluwalia Contracts (India) Ltd is gearing up for a direct foray into housing and infrastructure in town.

?We are looking at bringing our own residential condominiums to Calcutta and also contribute in roads, flyovers and treatment plants,? Shobhit Uppal, director of the New Delhi-based engineering, designing and construction firm, told Metro on Thursday.

Calcutta has contributed nearly Rs 100 crore to the company?s last year?s turnover, a figure it hopes to ?double in the next two years?. Ahluwalia Contracts had started its city trek when it constructed the Duncan (now Apollo) Gleneagles Hospitals about seven years back, which was its first foray outside north India.

Subsequently, the group has constructed ITC Sonar Bangla, the first two towers of Hiland Park, the Bengal Intelligent Park for TCG and Technopolis for Rahul Saraf. Currently, Silver Spring, Mani Square and the four towers of South City are the mega projects in town being built by the upcountry construction major.

?South City is clearly the biggest and most prestigious project we are working on in Calcutta at present. However, we are equally excited about Milan Mela (the trade fair ground opposite Science City), for which we have won the bid on both design and financial proposal grounds,? said Uppal.

Ahluwalia Contracts has engaged German architects? firm JV Consult to design the 175,000-sq ft first phase of the fair ground, and Singapore-based structural engineers Meinhardt for the Rs 50-crore project, expected to be delivered by end-2007.

In keeping with its bullish Calcutta roadmap, the company is also setting up an RMC (ready-mix concrete) plant in town to augment construction logistics. ?At the moment, Calcutta contributes around Rs 250 crore to our cumulative order book value of Rs 1,500 crore. But that pie is bound to grow since this city is now focused on development and the potential is huge,? Uppal stressed.

Ahluwalia Contracts is among the select group of contractors pre-qualified to bid for most of the mega projects in the country. India Exposition Mart in Greater Noida, Grand Hyatt in New Delhi, Four Season in Mumbai and the Escorts Hospital in Jaipur are some of the leading projects executed by the firm.