It was 6.15 pm with 15 minutes to go for the mega event of the infrastructure equipment industry. Meanwhile, the Viceroy Hall at the heritage Claridges Hotel located in New Delhi's famed Lutyen's Zone was already filled to capacity.

India is urbanising at, what a Union Minister has termed, a very 'dramatic' clip. It today has 50 cities with a population of over one million. As per the 2011 Census, the total number of cities and towns in the country had increased to 7,936 from 5,161 in 2001.

EPIL has executed critical activities in Indian Oil Corporation Limited’s 15 MMTPA Paradip Refinery project, the Saurashtra Narmada Avtaran Irrigation (SAUNI) Pipeline Yojana project, as well as the Kaladan Multimodal Transport Project in Myanmar.

Highway developer Dilip Buildcon has said that it has bagged two EPC road projects worth about Rs 700 crore in Maharashtra from the Road Transport and Highways Ministry.

Engineering conglomerate Larsen & Toubro’s construction arm has secured its single-biggest order worth Rs 5,250 crore from Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation for power transmission and network expansion.

When the 60 winning cities (with proposals worth over Rs 1.31 lakh crore) become smart, it is expected to positively impact the lives of 72 crore urban population. While Rs 1.05 lakh crore will be spent on area-based development plans, Rs 26,141 crore will be spent on pan-city solutions in the next five years.

Gayatri Projects has secured an irrigation contract worth Rs 1,363 crore from the Executive Engineer, Karnataka Neeravari Nigama Limited.

Larsen and Toubro Hydrocarbon Engineering has said that it has signed a five-year framework agreement with Shell for engineering, procurement and construction management services.

Low-cost housing is a volume business. Private companies would be interested in this business only when there is scale. The intention of the government to give this sector infra status is to offer access to low-cost funding for the sector.