If Gurgaon represented one aspect of Sushil Ansal’s attempt to look beyond Delhi, overseas projects were another. The Ansal brand travelled to several countries: Iraq, Russia, Thailand, Vietnam, Nepal and Bangladesh. The company played both developer and contractor. Sushil Ansal is frank that the initial motivation to seeking projects abroad was the prospect of tax breaks. “Fifty per cent of income in foreign exchange was tax free,” he says, “and this was a big incentive.” He also welcomed the chance of better exposure to international contracting and real estate methodologies and practices.
The first port of call was Iraq. In the early 1970s, Saddam Hussein was still seen as a progressive, benevolent dictator rather than the megalomaniac warmonger he became by the 1990s, and Iraq was transforming itself through an oil-fuelled construction boom. In fact, when Sushil Ansal first visited Iraq in 1976, scouting for opportunities, he found the Iraqi strongman “using oil money productively, building steel and cement plants and promoting adult education.” This was unlike many other oil economies in the Gulf region, which wasted their money in creating showy symbols that were not long-term assets.
The first contract from Baghdad came in 1979. Sushil Ansal was asked to build factory sheds in a coded project named Saad 3. These were no ordinary factory sheds, but encompassed half a million square feet just outside Baghdad. Intricate cable channels and complicated machine foundations were part of the blueprint. Yet, the contractors weren’t told everything. “We did not know what machines would be installed there,” recalls Sushil Ansal, “and only vaguely guessed it was a military installation.” It later emerged Saad 3 was put to use during the Iran war and the First Gulf War as a weapon factory.
The next project saw Sushil Ansal go to Mosul in the north of Iraq and execute the construction of grain silos and godowns, a project not very different from the one he had begun with all those years ago in Hapur. “Conditions were harsh here,” says Sushil Ansal, “and also unique. The area was underdeveloped. We carried water, cement and bricks on donkey-back.” The jewel in the crown was Tahrir Square, a modern office building in Baghdad that, when completed in 1990, was the tallest office building in the Iraqi capital. Years later, Sushil Ansal was to read about Tahrir Square in newspapers. It was targeted by the US Air Force in the Second Gulf War and, being a central location in the Iraqi capital, subsequently became a favorite spot for suicide bombings by Islamist insurgents.
The first port of call was Iraq. In the early 1970s, Saddam Hussein was still seen as a progressive, benevolent dictator rather than the megalomaniac warmonger he became by the 1990s, and Iraq was transforming itself through an oil-fuelled construction boom. In fact, when Sushil Ansal first visited Iraq in 1976, scouting for opportunities, he found the Iraqi strongman “using oil money productively, building steel and cement plants and promoting adult education.” This was unlike many other oil economies in the Gulf region, which wasted their money in creating showy symbols that were not long-term assets.
Sushil AnsalThe first contract from Baghdad came in 1979. Sushil Ansal was asked to build factory sheds in a coded project named Saad 3. These were no ordinary factory sheds, but encompassed half a million square feet just outside Baghdad. Intricate cable channels and complicated machine foundations were part of the blueprint. Yet, the contractors weren’t told everything. “We did not know what machines would be installed there,” recalls Sushil Ansal, “and only vaguely guessed it was a military installation.” It later emerged Saad 3 was put to use during the Iran war and the First Gulf War as a weapon factory.
The next project saw Sushil Ansal go to Mosul in the north of Iraq and execute the construction of grain silos and godowns, a project not very different from the one he had begun with all those years ago in Hapur. “Conditions were harsh here,” says Sushil Ansal, “and also unique. The area was underdeveloped. We carried water, cement and bricks on donkey-back.” The jewel in the crown was Tahrir Square, a modern office building in Baghdad that, when completed in 1990, was the tallest office building in the Iraqi capital. Years later, Sushil Ansal was to read about Tahrir Square in newspapers. It was targeted by the US Air Force in the Second Gulf War and, being a central location in the Iraqi capital, subsequently became a favorite spot for suicide bombings by Islamist insurgents.
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