TIDE TURNS ONCE AGAIN

Unlike the unceremonious exit from the food business, it took little time for John’s new venture as a construction entrepreneur to take off. What he does, essentially, is to purchase land parcels in the states of Punjab and Himachal Pradesh on behalf of the Diocese of Jalandhar and Claretian Congregation with the eventual purpose of constructing new charity schools and hospitals. The campuses have residential units for staff as well. From designing the entire project, working with  known architects to bring about a world class feel, to getting them furnished, John oversees every operation. His firm, Hodu Constructions, is now a leading name in construction of schools across Punjab and Himachal Pradesh.

In order to scale up business, John purchases the land on behalf of the Diocese and the Congregations, and develops them entirely. At any given point in time he has several developmental contracts lined up, and this forms the backbone of his business revenue model.

Like he has been right from the beginning, John is acutely quality conscious. He finds that quality raw materials such as concrete, interlock tiles, bricks are not easily available. He, therefore, is investing in a concrete plant that he will import from Europe. Eventually he wants to get into prefabricated housing in a big way. That also aligns with the Government’s vision of providing low-cost housing to the masses, but without compromising on precision and quality care. “When I do that, it’ll be a service for the less privileged segment of society,” says John. Having been a part of that segment earlier, and having witnessed from up close how tough life can be when money is hard to come by, the construction entrepreneur certainly knows what he’s talking about.