Khandekar - PERSEVERANCE PAYS WELL

SANJAY KSHIRSAGAR HAS SPENT thirty-five years of his life in a kholi, a one-room tenement in a chawl measuring 120 square feet, in Kurar village in Malad, a western suburb in Mumbai. Today, located just a stones throw away, is the forty-three-year-olds very own office. His company, APA Infraventure Private Limited, owns five acres of land where his fathers home used to be, and has even invested in nine more acres. Sanjay is going to build 300 flats on this land and once the project is over, he says, his company will earn Rs 500 crore.

Sanjay had wanted to be a businessman since childhood. For the past twenty years he has been involved in various businesses, but it was only after he contested the Mumbai municipal corporation elections that he made his foray into the field of real estate. During his campaign he was perturbed to learn that the 2 lakh inhabitants of his ward were forced to spend hours in queues for basic amenities like water and toilets. He could come up with only one solution to this problem: high-rise buildings constructed in place of hutments and chawls, which would ensure toilets and water supply in each home.

Keeping this in mind, high on Sanjays campaign agenda was the implementation of the Maharashtra governments slum rehabilitation scheme, which directed private builders to construct high-rises over the part of the land taken up by slums, and provide 225-square-feet flats to the slum dwellers, free of cost. In exchange, the builder would be allowed to construct flats on half the land and sell them in the open market for profit. According to the scheme, 60 per cent of the residents of the slums that existed before 1995 had the option of forming a cooperative society, choosing a builder and giving him the right to develop their land.

In spite of having a strong agenda, Sanjay received a mere 300 votes and lost the elections. But he still wished to fulfil his promise to the people and began bringing them together in order to find a builder for this endeavour. However, even after five years of efforts, they could not find a builder to take on their project. It was then that Sanjay decided to take it on himself and formed his company, APA Infraventure, in 2007.

APA stands for Atul Prabhu Associates. Atul, the son of the famous Mumbai architect Shashi Prabhu, is Sanjays partner in the company. Sanjay holds 62 per cent of the companys shares. This company is working on five projects in Mumbais Malad East.

Sanjay feels that real estate is not an easy business, and that if it were up to him, he would go back to his previous business of manufacturing audio speakersthat, however, isnt possible any more as he has invested Rs 45 crore in the business, and the cost of his land far exceeds that amount now. Limitations include mobilizing funds for construction, as banks are not ready to provide loans without securityespecially for persons with a lower-middle-class background who have nothing to pledge. Sanjay laments the improper use of the fund created by the government for aiding Dalit businesses; he believes that it would be easier for Dalits to run a business if the government directly gives the fund to banks and asks them to provide loans without security. Still, Sanjay is hopeful that the first phase of his project will be completed in a years time.

After completing his education, apart from the one year he spent working at Crompton Greaves, Sanjay focused all his energies into establishing his own business. His father used to work in the office of the Controller of Defence Accounts, and his salary wasnt enough to bring up Sanjays two brothers and one sister. Sanjay reveals he would silently pray that he never had to do a nine-to-five job; he understood that a government job translated into a steady income, but this modest income would not be augmented by walking the straight road and not taking any bribes. It was difficult for a family of five to live in a 120-square-feet room.

The house was small, but Sanjays father had big plans. According to Sanjay, one of his fathers best decisions was to educate his children in an English-medium school. As a result, Sanjay studied till class ten at St George High School in Malad. After class ten, he wished to obtain a diploma in electronic engineering. In spite of securing 286 out of 300 marksalmost 95 per centin class ten, he could not get admission to the 125-year-old Veermata Jijabhai Technology Institute (VJTI) in Matunga. There were only ten seats available, and he was fourteenth on the merit list. Unaware that a second list would be put up later, he never returned to VJTI. Extremely disappointed, Sanjay remembers just sitting at homethere was no one to show him the way forward. A few months later, a neighbour helped him get admission to class eleven at R.D. National College in Bandra.