From homeopathy to building homes

Rameswar Rao Jupally.
Rameswar Rao Jupally.

Hyderabad :

Ordinarily dressed – in white shirt and black trousers – Rameswar Rao Jupally looks nothing like a business tycoon as he walks into the room for, perhaps, the first interview of his life. The only giveaway is the opulent hall where the chairman of My Home Group, counted among the few home-bred industrialists of Telangana, meets his guests.

“I have never done this before,” the homoeopathy doctor-turned-real estate biggie confesses, as he slips into tales about his modest upbringing and maiden trip to Hyderabad – from his remote village in Mahbubnagar – way back in 1974.

To think that the same boy from Kudikilla now rules two major businesses in the state, realty and cement (supplied to 11 states), and is set to launch a whopping $8 billion-worth ‘Smart City’ project spread over a sprawling 3,000 acres in Shamshabad, is definitely overwhelming.

“It’s my dream project. I have already accumulated 2,000 acres and am now in the process of acquiring another 1,000 acres. The project is in the planning stage and work on the first phase will commence in 2016. It will be completed in 10 years,” Rao reveals about the venture that’s expected to be “self-sufficient”, complete with top notch IT firms, high-end residential units, plush shopping complexes

and a dedicated ‘green belt’. Not to forget top-league corporate hospitals and educational institutions that’ll also be part of this ‘city’.

But before Rao gives a ‘smart’ makeover to Shamshabad – where he hopes to launch an electrical train line too – the spiritually-inclined industrialist is working on giving Hyderabad its largest commercial tower, with a total built up space of 3.2 million square feet (sft). Total cost: Rs 640 crore (roughly).

“Right now, the ICICI building in the Financial District (2.5 million sft) is the biggest. The one I am constructing on a single patch of 28.5 acres in Raidurgam will be bigger than that. The other patch of 3.5 acres (approx) will house 1,600 premium apartments, a 10-screen multiplex and mall. I hope to deliver it by the end of 2017,” Rao says.

He goes on to reminisce his days in 1979, when he made his first investment – of Rs 50,000 – to buy a two-acre plot in Dilsukhnagar. The deal, brokered with money borrowed from a maternal uncle, not only earned Rao a profit of Rs 2 lakh in two weeks, but also ensured that he bid his homoeopathy practice adieu, sooner than later, and plunge into the property business.

Three-and-half decades and an unwavering association with Chinna Jeeyar Swami, which the two struck up in 1992, later, the My Home founder is now a leader in the realty sector and also has three plants producing 8.5 million tonnes of cement every year. His brand, Maha Cement, posts an annual turnover of Rs 3,000 crore. In addition, he sells 30 MW of the total 70 MW of power produced by his captive power plants.

“The power crisis facing Telangana will be resolved by 2016-17. That’s when the city’s real estate business will bounce back,” an optimistic Rao, who prides himself in being futuristic and far-sighted, says. While he admits that the new TRS government did face administrative hiccups in its initial months, he is confident of ‘Team KCR’ living up to peoples’ expectations in the days to come. “The well-drafted industrial policy is an example of that. The government is working very actively on attracting investors to Hyderabad,” he adds.

But while Rao enjoys talking business, what gives him utmost comfort is his daily two-hour puja regime, frequent trips to Swamiji’s ashram in Shamshabad and the social activities that he undertakes under the Jeeyar Educational Trust banner.

It is this that Rao says, has saved him from falling prey to the ill-effects of big bucks and stupendous success!

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Hyderabad / by Sudipta Sengupta, TNN / March 05th, 2015

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