Minaean Ventures joins Tisco for low-cost steel housing
Minaean Ventures Inc (MVI), the low-cost Canadian housing solutions company, is looking at the Indian housing market optimistically. Minaean Habitat India, (MHI) a fully-owned subsidiary of MVI, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Tata Steel (Tisco) for assistance in the marketing of steel-intensive buildings. Tisco will partner MHI towards low-cost efficient housing for the masses and pioneer the entry of cost-effective, low maintenance, aesthetic, optimally designed steel-intensive buildings.
MVI vice-president (engineering & operations) Salman Sayeed, told FE recently that the MoU with Tisco would help, "apart from the marketing efforts as well as creating awareness of the system, we would be getting steel at preferential prices for the projects." A community steel club house of around 2,280 sq ft area constructed by MVI here, recently inaugurated by Tisco managing director B Muthuraman, was shown to have consumed 12 metric tonne (mt) of steel (compared to 5 mt, the conventional way) and 285 bags of cement (900 bags, the conventional way), while taking only 61 days in completing the foundation as well as the superstructure.
"India needs around 40 million houses as per estimates and the government is also open to new low-cost technology requiring minimal use of cement, sand and water," added Mr Sayeed, expressing optimism at working with Tisco. Apart from taking up construction of two big residential units here soon, Minaean is in talks with the National Building Construction Company (NBCC) and Engineering Projects India Ltd (EPIL) for construction of housing colonies for the Jharkhand police force.
It is also in talks with Jharkhand's health ministry for constructing some primary health centres and 14100-bed hospitals, starting with Bokaro. Apart from houses, MVI is also into industrial steel buildings and is in talks with "a major hotel group" for construction of a four-storey hotel complex at Bangalore. The Canadian company is building 100 low-cost houses near Bangalore for Kamataka's Slum Clearance Board.
