as a contractor to other departments of Government, that Phatak-Walchand private limited (partnership till 1915) made money. Phatak left the firm after it bought a foundry and undertook a mining lease, with the view that it was stretching itself into too many areas. Meanwhile, the firm found it difficult to bag larger contracts due to small size and absence of marquee names. It was merged into Tata Construction Company in 1920 to overcome these problems. Some of the major projects executed by the company include the commissioning of the tunnels through the Bhor Ghats for a railway route from Mumbai to Pune and laying of water pipes from Tansa lake to Mumbai and also laying tracks for Barsi Light Railway. Other major projects executed by the firm include the Kalabag Bridge over Indus and a bridge across the Irrawaddy River in Burma. All these projects were directed by Walchand. In 1929, he became the managing director of the company. In 1935, the company was renamed as Premier Construction to reflect the fact that Tatas had sold their stake in the firm to Walchand. Other construction company he founded was Hindustan Construction Company in 1926, which is today one of the civil and engineering construction giants of India. Sugar machinery and confectionery Walchand founded Walchandnagar Industries in 1908, which was started as a large-scale sugar farming firm but was later diversified into also making sugar refined spirits, sugar machinery, plastic goods, cement plant, paper and pulp plant, and water tubes. Walchand made Gulabchand its chairman to look after its day-to-day affairs. Walchandnagar Industries is today a diversified company manufacturing also boilers, turbines and also supplies strategic components to India's defence and aerospace sector. WIL was subject to sanctions by the United States following Pokhran-II for its involvement in India's nuclear and space programs. The sanctions were dropped in 2001. Another company in sugar and confectionery, the Ravalgaon Sugar Farm, was started by Walchand in 1933 and it is the Confectionery Division was started in 1942. Today, Ravalgaon Sugar is one of the market leaders in the Indian confectionery market, which is managed professionally by independent Directors. Shipping In 1919, after the end of World War I, he along with his friends, Narottam Morarjee, and Kilachand Devchand, bought a steamer, the SS Loyalty from the Scindias of Gwalior; with Narottam Morarjee being major financer. Walchand's underlying assumption was that the post-war years