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Men who matter
Balaji
He has his signature distinctly embedded on every building that he has constructed so far. Any person who has a little bit of knowledge of real estates would at a glance be able to say that a particular building is constructed by Balaji of Balaji Construction Company, by its elevation and quality of construction.
Meet J. Mallikarjunudu, popularly known as Balaji. He moved to Vizag from Eluru in 1979 to study MBA in Andhra University and to take care of the cinema hall, Venkateswara, which was constructed by his uncle.
"Ours is basically a joint family. So after completion of MBA, I joined the family construction business being the eldest son the family. Thereafter, I moved to deepsea fishing for a brief period. But all along, I was fascinated by building construction. The seed for this was sown when I was made to overlook the construction of our family house in Eluru," says Balaji.
"The idea of constructing apartments had come to my mind in the early 1980s itself. I realised that the city is like a bowl with natural boundaries on all sides, and felt that with its geo-physical features the city was bound to expand vertically sooner or later. After visiting cities like Mumbai and Delhi where apartment culture was already on the rise and against the wish of my family, I started my first venture with a few friends. It was a group housing complex and that's how Lakshmi Apartments came into existence," says he.
Since then he has not looked back. So far he has constructed 33 apartment and two commercial complexes.
On his success, he says, "Customers are my strength, my motivating factor and my propaganda tool, and it is because of them I am what I am today. All these years I have been working on one factor and that is building goodwill. I spend a lot of time on planning, right from site selection to giving the final touches to the elevation. I give a lot importance to personal tastes of the customer rather than force my ideas,and that is why I have a personal bonding with each one of them. My duty does not end by handing over the flat keys. I make it a point to give a proper after-sales service."
Balaji feels that every apartment complex should be like a friendly neighbourhood and that's one of the reasons why he is choosy about his customers. By giving the best value for money, he emphasises that there is no compromise on quality. "I give equal importance to both interior and exterior beauty of the complex."
On the future of this city, he says, "The future of real estate lies in satellite townships."
S.B.
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