KEF Holdings to invest Rs. 2,000 crore in India.

Dubai-based KEF Holdings, promoted by non-resident Indian businessman Faizal E Kottikollon, plans to invest around Rs. 2,000 crore in this country to set up three factories, one each in north India, Gujarat and Maharashtra.

The company specialises in offsite construction technology. It also plans to launch a real estate fund.

Kottikollon, to attend the Great Lakes Institute of Management 11th convocation, told this newspaper that after the new government took charge at the Centre last year, there was hope and confidence among investors outside India.

'The government's vision is positive, bureaucrats are positive, there is a business-friendly approach, though on-ground development is not visible,' he said. 'The key game changers would be GST (the long-awaited national goods and services tax) and land Bills for investors like us.'

KEF is investing around Rs. 1,100 crore to set up an industrial park at Tamil Nadu and a 500-bed hospital in Kerala. The 42-acre KEF Industrial Park at Krishnagiri, Tamil Nadu, is this country's only off-site manufacturing facility for construction, it says. Investment in the project is Rs. 500-600 crore, of which around Rs. 400 crore has been put in. The Rs. 550-crore hospital project is designed to be built with precast and modular construction technology. It is scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2016.


BS