Astral Constructors

Astral Constructors (Pvt) Ltd (formerly Kestral SPD (Pvt) Ltd; same company, new name) is the premier construction and engineering services company of Pakistan. Astral is licensed by the Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC), the regulatory body for construction and engineering services, in the highest license category (CA - unlimited project execution size). While most of the construction projects in Pakistan are modeled on the measurement-based, build-to-design (item-rate) contracts, Astral has performed perhaps the largest number and highest value of Design-Build firm-fixed-priced construction projects in the country!

From its inception, the company has been very selective in its human resource hiring and is focused on strengthening them through off-site and on-the-job training. The company has developed its internal processes modeled after the best-in-class for planning, execution and safety.

Astral is ISO 9001:2015 certified, ISO 14001:2015 certified, and OHSAS 18001:2007 certified for the quality management, environmental management, and occupational health and safety management systems, respectively, in all its construction & engineering services activities.

Astral Constructors (Pvt) Ltd started business in 2004 as Kestral SPD (Pvt) Ltd leveraging from the need to provide structured turnkey design & build services being sought by clients in the country and very little expertise around to do it. The model worked remarkably well making Astral the No. 1 company in Pakistan for Design & Build experience. As time progressed, the company realized that the recognition and acceptance of Design & Build in Pakistan was and seemed destined to remain a very niche segment and the traditional construct-to-design-provided model will continue to dominate. But, the company’s Design & Build experience made it systems and processes effective and operational to the best-in-class international standards.

Astral's two divisions of Engineering and Construction Services and Facilities Management are ideally positioned to work on any assignment in Pakistan and selected parts of the Middle East and Africa. Our client base includes many foreign multinationals and governments. For example, we have successfully completed over a dozen projects in Pakistan funded and managed by various US Government agencies, including 3 with the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), most of them complete design and build! Furthermore, many of our projects are on secure government/military bases and facilities where a project is not just about construction but all the other elements of successful execution such as site administration, security of man and machine, full logging and reporting, detailed planning of all aspects of the project, etc. Almost all of the projects involving highly discerning clients are required to be completed on fast-track basis.

In a very short period, Astral established itself as the company of choice for such services and the company grew rapidly and established a strong name in the market synonymous with Integrity, Quality, Timeliness and Value. These four attributes distinguish Astral from its peers in the region. Our approach was modeled around the best-in-class companies of global repute with processes clearly defined, training programs, project and office organization structured using the required skills and a semi-matrix management structure enabling quality and maximization of output from the company's human resources. Astral prides itself as probably the only company in Pakistan which values its human resource at the top of its functional hierarchy.

Our trained people, established processes and methodological approach to construction renders us as the company of choice for our clients since the default in this region does not conform to international standards of methodology, quality and HSE. For example, on the two USACE projects Astral performed in 2006-2008, there were no lost time injuries (LTIs). On another large project, Astral was awarded by KBR (an IDIQ contractor to which Astral was the prime sub) a merit certificate for completion of 1M man hours without any lost time injury!

Astral performs all its construction activities with its own people (manual labor is, of course, hired from the market depending on the region) and only subcontracts the design work. We work with our design partners like team members to ensure proper design coordination before a segment goes into construction. Our past experience suggests that issues/problems at the design stage are the predominant drivers for schedule delays and cost escalations. A strong, experienced design team is critical to the timely completion of civil projects. In spite of this strength in the design subcontracting, we maintain a design support team which is responsible for coordination and compliance audit of all design produced by the design subcontractors. This design coordination function is critical for smooth execution of the project especially since the designers generally are not a single integrated company and are not very well equipped beyond their individual design disciplines.

Astral is ISO 9001:2015 certified, ISO 14001:2015 certified, and OHSAS 18001:2007 certified for the quality management, environmental management, and occupational health and safety management systems, respectively, in all its construction & engineering services activities.