Project delays will impede growth: Gulabchand

22 Jan 2011

With the environment ministry talking tough on the Lavasa project, the chairman and managing director of Hindustan Construction Co Ltd (HCC) yesterday said it was hurting the company to invest in India.

"It is hurting us to invest in India due to so many controversies and court issues that we have been undergoing phase by phase. Lavasa Corp has been losing around Rs2 crore a day after the environment ministry asked us to halt work at the site.

The company has already lost around Rs100 crore," HCC chairman and managing director Ajit Gulabchand said at press conference in Mumbai.

HCC has a 64.9 per cent stake in Lavasa. The Lavasa township is billed to be India's first new hill station since Independence.

In response to a question as to whether the company was looking for options outside India, Gulabchand said: "Our country has the potential market to grow like other emerging countries. To facilitate this growth, there should not be any hindrance to projects."

Lavasa Corporation Limited (LCL) halted construction at the site on 25 November 2010.