Baburao Govindrao Shirke(1918-2010)
 Recollecting histories of Pune’s Engineers and Builders




For most, the farmer’s son who became a contracting magnate and pioneered the production of prefabricated aerated concrete blocks in western India, needs no introduction. Baburao Govindrao Shirke’s interest in civil engineering was kindled at a young age. In the agricultural low season, the Shirke family produced bricks and supplied sand to construction sites in Panchgani and Mahabaleshwar. With the support of his mother and by taking up odd jobs and persevering Shirke could pursue education all the way up to engineering college in Pune, passing his B.E. exam in 1943. His first experience on the building site was when he joined former college friends who were constructing a large military camp under Bombay contractor Tejukaya at Deolali, near Nashik. Shirke soon left, however, eager to learn more. He briefly worked with Gannon Dunkerley, who were concreting the Mumbai-Pune road between Shivajinagar railway station and Sassoon Hospital, and then worked with N.G. Pawar, a well-known contractor in Pune, on the Bhanuvilas theatre. In 1944, B.G. Shirke started on his own by the company name Supreme Construction Company. The trading company J.N. Marshall lent Shirke money which allowed him to take on a first general contracting assignment of a new jail in Kolhapur. From 1946, Shirke would represent J.N. Marshall in Pune and Kolhapur and sell their imported machinery such as diesel engines, tractors, and road rollers. Until 1958 Shirke undertook M.E.S. contracts and did quite well, building himself a bungalow designed by architect U.M. Apte on Apte Road. 

However, by this time he grew tired of the outdated hierarchic building bureaucracy on government works and its practices inherited from colonial times in which “no one is held responsible for anything”; he started building industrial premises for private clients such as the Kirloskars and launched his ‘crusade’ for the simplification and industrialisation of the industry by pleading for lump sum contracts, prefabrication, and mechanisation. Shirke no longer worked with subcontractors but employed all his workers directly. Able engineers G.R. Bharitkar, R.B. Suryavanshi, and V.G. Jana joined the company at this time and remained its cornerstones throughout their careers. It is through one of his industrial clients, Sandvik, that Shirke learned about Siporex and explored opportunities to introduce Siporex blocks and other factory-made prefabricated building components to India. Siporex and other prefabs were launched on the market in 1972 but the company had a very bad time at the start. The oil crisis saved them as they could build large projects with Siporex in the booming Middle East. At this time, B.G. Shirke was a Chairman of the Institution of Engineers (India), Pune Local Centre 1974-1976. Er. R.B. Suryavanshi served as Chairman of the Builders’ Association of India, Pune Centre from 2014 to 2015.

Sports City at Balewadi, Army Sports Institute ,Ghorpuri, (both in Pune) and Indoor Cricket Academy, Mumbai, were some of the landmark construction projects undertaken 

Shirke was honoured with the fourth highest civilian award of the country-- Padma Shri -- in 2003 by the Centre for excellence in the field of construction.

Image Courtesy: Nene Ravindra R. ‘Works by U.M. Apte’. Graduate thesis, 1979, The Crusade: Autobiography of B.G. Shirke. Pune: Ameya Prakashan, 1998, B.G. Shirke Group, IEI PLC, Pradeep Garge.