Devendra Jain, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer, Dilip Buildcon Limited, entered business at an early age just after completing his bachelor’s in civil engineering from Vikram University, Ujjain. Dilip Buildcon entered the real estate business in the late 1990s and the infrastructure business in 2000.
The company has completed the development of over 10,000 km of roads under Jain’s stewardship. On being asked about his views on the current scenario in the road sector, Jain says, “The government is working aggressively to step up road development activity in the country. The government has started the process of charting out a strategy to identify major national highways and decide, based on the volume of traffic, whether a two-lane or four-lane road is required.”
He counts the Ahmedabad Godhra road project, which was constructed during 2010-13, among his most memorable assignments. The project is memorable because it was the biggest project for the company at that time. Also, the company used high-end technology during the construction process which later became a benchmark for other projects in the industry.
“In an industry like ours, making quick decisions is very important as a crisis is something that can come knocking on the door without any warning. The ability to act fast has been the biggest strength and played a pivotal role in benefiting not just me but the entire company,” he says.
Discipline and punctuality are the two major values he expects everyone to follow. Waking up at 6:30 every morning to check the project status has been a discipline for Jain. His team too dedicates the early morning hours to reviewing the status of a project and working out solutions for problems, if any.
Jain watches movies to relax. 3 Idiots is the movie that inspires him and is one of his favourites because of its message that the harder you work, the more are rewarding the results. Music brings peace of mind for Jain and he is a big fan of Kishore Kumar’s songs.
Jain likes to travel around the world and visit new places. Recently, he visited Svalbard near Norway at the end of the North Pole where only 1,000 people live, alongside 2,000 polar bears. “My next travel destination will be Antarctica,” says Jain. His hobbies include attending the finals of cricket and football tournaments. Attending the FIFA 2018 final tops his bucket list.