He is giving Goans, Goa 's first intelligent building, where the air-conditioning system installed can sense the number of persons entering a room and adjust the temperature accordingly. AHVA D'SOUZAA met up with Rohit Gera - Executive Director, Gera Developments Private Limited

Rohit Gera is the third generation in the family business at Gera Developments and carries on this legacy with passion and pride. He is one of those rare developers that are committed to giving India the best that the building industry has seen, with intelligent buildings. Having done his schooling from Doon School , Dehradun, he went on to graduate from the University of Massachusetts , Amherst , Massachusetts , USA with a double major in Building Construction and Project Management and Economics. The saying  'Home is where the heart lies' is apt for Rohit as he returned to begin his career in India .

About the scenario of intelligent Buildings, Rohit says, "We have had a fair amount of success with intelligent buildings in the past. In Goa when came with the concept and were conducting research we received a good response and decided to go ahead with the project." The basic philosophy of  building intelligent buildings is to put into place a building Intelligent buildings is to put into place a building which customers are keen to move into because of quality of development and quality of features. The quality of a building should be such that it gives value to the end consumer. Our end -customer must have value from the features that we provide, he adds. It is important that when one builds a building they have to be there for a long time and not just build and move away.

Our intentions are to be in Goa for a long term and in keeping with this we are offering a 5-year warranty, where after completion we will provide service and support to our customers for at least five years.

The features of the intelligent building at Patto Plaza , which is in the process of construction. He says, "The Building is an 8 storied with a glass façade. Piling work has already started and we are looking at completing the building by Diwali 2007. The response from Goan people is tremendous considering that we have just been here for one month." He however adds that the difference between Goa and Pune markets is that though the demand is the same in Goa people take a longer time in making decisions. Our customers are currently locals. We will initiate marketing overseas. We are expecting a good response from the overseas market, he adds.

He stresses that when building one has to see that the building needs to have a certain minimum critical mass of actual users. One cannot only have investors, as the building would then turn into a ghost town giving way to deterioration and customers not paying maintenance money.

 He says, "Any single project needs to have end users. When investors come in they are looking at rising prices our philosophy is to let the customer get the rise in prices. Rather than have speculators come into the project. Even in Pune we tend to limit our exposure to the investor segment to not more than 10-15 per cent."

He is particular about structural design and says that this is the only aspect where it is outsourced to the best in the country and all our buildings are built adhering to the Indian standard Codes (ISC).

He says, "The soil in Goa is different and at the site where we are building, we have to do a double raft in the intelligent building in Goa, because unlike other cities where the load is transferred downwards, in Goa because of the water table we have a reverse pressure as well. It is essential that we have piling, raft foundation and a double as it prevents the water from seeping upwards."

Sharing on the success and strengths of the company he says, "We do not cut corners when it comes to safety, quality and what is being delivered to the customer." Explaining his point he says, "If one structural element has a problem it will impact our other projects across a number of cities. We are extremely aware of the fact that we need to have adequate safety measures, security, and quality control to be able to ensure that buildings must be delivered as envisaged."

Sharing on the challenges that a developer he is quick to respond and says talent is lacking. Markets are booming, real estate developers are growing, but finding quality talent is difficult.

Another interesting fact is that people always question why builders charge such huge sums on completion of the building when the actual costs are much lower? He says, "The big risks in building is determining what your product mix should be.

Also, people never consider financial holding cost, time, costs of clearances and risks associated with projects."

He adds that a developer has to come out with a product and sell it, but what happens if the product does not sell or does not work? The risks associated with the business are very high. Markets are a factor that also affects real estate and building industry. It takes a lot of time and investment and at the end of the year the holding costs goes up by 10-12 per cent.

Sharing his future plans he says, "Besides considering entering the Bangalore market, I am planning to come out with residential projects like villas or apartments. We are in the process of going through it. If it is villas it will be away from the city and if it is apartments it will be closer to Panjim."