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His company –­ Wireless TT Info Services Limited (WTTIL), Tata Teleservices Limited's (TTSL) erstwhile tower wing –­ is a leading provider of telecom infrastructure, systems, networks and services. It has already built 16,000 telecom towers. In his one year as chief operating officer (COO), Ramanand has been responsible for multiplying the company's tower bases and tenancy, giving it the highest tenancy ratio and site uptime availability amongst all tower operators in India.

But there can be no resting. The mobile subscriber base in the country is expected to reach more than 500 million by 2010. In view of this extraordinary opportunity, it is estimated that 330,000 towers will be required by 2010 as against 100,000 towers in 2008.

"The main challenge before me is to extend WTTIL's footprint and increase profitability. Everything else falls under these two main tasks," he says.

A fellow of the Institution of Engineers, Ramanand has wide and varied experience in the operation and management of all aspects of infrastructure building including planning, design, contracting, project management, and operations and maintenance.

As head of infrastructure for TTSL, he has been instrumental in defining the infrastructure strategy and execution plans for cell sites, real estate, buildings and facilities, and power installations.

Some of the standards and processes that he helped set up have now been accepted as industry standards. When Ramanand started building towers, he expected that the biggest difficulty would be to move materials all around the country. Though this was certainly not an easy task, he discovered that the real challenge lay in competing with a ready-built tower because, given a choice, an operator would prefer a ready-built tower over one that has to be built from scratch.

He has to put up towers at lightning speed. Earlier, WTTIL would erect a tower in 90-100 days. Now it does so in 60 days. "We used to build five towers per circle per month. Now we build 100-160 a month and even then, the customer says I wanted 300," he says.

Ramanand knows that he has a fantastic opportunity but it is one that will last another year or two at the most, so he has to work fast. "When I started out building my first tower, I never realised that I would end up building thousands."

His current bugbear is landlords –­ the owners of the homes on which he wants to build his towers. He says that landlords have suddenly started making huge demands in the hope of making the most of the opportunity presented by the telecom industry, widely regarded as "the last great milk cow".

"They know all too well the value of a tower in a prime location and drive a hard bargain. Not only are they greedy in the initial prices, they also have other demands. Once the tower is up, they make access difficult, demanding that we give their relatives jobs as guards. The only way you can get around them is through persuasion," he says.

Ramanand has to also cope with mis-informed and erroneous media coverage of the radiation issue. In Andhra Pradesh and Kerala in particular, he has come across scare stories about the incidence of cancer and other serious diseases shooting up in the areas around a tower, allegedly owing to radiation.

"I recently saw a cartoon in Kerala which depicted that if you want cancer, a heart attack or migraine, get a tower installed on your house," he says. "The state governments understand the data on this. They are familiar with World Health Organization studies showing that no ill-health is caused. Even then, you often face a lot of vociferous local people agitating about it."

Born into a Hyderabad-based army family, Ramanand was the third generation to enter military service. He had the usual peripatetic childhood but believes that constantly changing schools enhanced his personality.

It meant that wherever he went, he was always the "new boy" and had to prove himself afresh every time since there were no antecedents or past laurels to pave the way. "The only disadvantage was that you never had the chance to build a personal rapport with the teachers and fellow students," he says.

He finished his schooling at a boarding school in Ooty, went to IIT Delhi and then joined the army in 1976 as a second lieutenant, eventually rising to colonel.

One of his favourite postings, oddly, was Siachen. For many officers, it was a "punishment posting" and the only way they could accept it was by rationalising it. "We used to joke that only the most brilliant officers were sent there, so when my turn came, I said I was pleased at the honour," he says, laughing.

As it turned out, he did enjoy it, mainly because of his ability to adapt to any situation. He says how heat and cold are relative concepts. If the temperature in Hyderabad is 43 degrees celsius and that is hot, then 30 degrees is cold. And if the temperature is -20 degrees and that is cold, then zero degree is summer. He managed to avoid getting frostbite thanks to the excellent clothing and equipment provided to the personnel in Siachen, but the isolation and enforced company of the same people for six months could be stressful. Getting away depended on the vagaries of the weather as well as the availability of aircraft.

"The good thing was that you worked so hard during the day that you slept like a baby at night, despite the cold. In those days, there was no STD, so my wife and I wrote each other long letters. I'd send them by military post. You just scribbled something on the envelope and somehow it reached home," he says.

He loved the army but after 20 years' service, he woke up one morning wondering what else was going on in the big wide world and feeling that it would be good to try something different. Backed by no plan or strategy, he providentially ended up working for TTSL in Hyderabad in 1997. His first task was building their first tower.

He built up the company's footprint and then went to Mumbai to build VSNL's data centre infrastructure that TTSL had acquired.

Ramanand's experience of the corporate world was positive from the start. In the army, he had been young and adventurous and surrounded by fellow officers who were taught to tackle challenges head on, to take adversity in their stride, and guided by the principle –­ "if there is a problem, let's go out and fix it".

He was struck by the similarities between the corporate world and army life, calling the culture "identical" because of the pursuit of excellence and results.

"Wherever you are and whatever the task, it is the people who count. Every other dimension of a situation or organisation is incidental. Having the right people in the right place and motivating them to do their best is what counts," he says.

So many ex-army officers have joined the corporate world that he keeps running into old military friends who are enjoying all the work opportunities that never existed 20 years ago. Earlier, if you did not work for the government, you worked perforce for a public sector unit or for the Tatas or the Birlas. But now the opportunities are unlimited.

"Officers who have retired and completed 35 years' service are still only in their 50s, so they want to work. It's like a second career. And corporations, needing talented managers, have given them a chance. Some have excelled, some have not. The army is no different from any other organisation. It has some superb people and some mediocre ones," he says.

One lesson that Ramanand has learnt from his army experience is that people want to be treated like human beings, given respect, allowed to make mistakes, get on with the job and prove themselves.

Throughout his career, his wife Malati has been a great support to him in that she realised, early in their marriage, that his work drive was tremendous. She decided to focus on looking after their home and children and give him free rein to pursue his ambitions.

"It was a textbook arranged marriage. I came home on vacation from the army and in 10 days we were married. It's been 25 wonderful years. She took charge of everything and let me work and that's worked for us," he says.

His son is a foodie and Ramanand enjoys eating out with him in Hyderabad, where they are based. His daughter is married and works for an HR firm. He is not keen on music for relaxation, preferring golf, doing crosswords while waiting in airport departure lounges and playing Scrabble online on his laptop.

"I find that music is a distraction to my concentration. I need silence. But you can't cut off interruptions. I've tried switching off my mobile, switching off my laptop, but nothing works. You have to be available all the time."

He is delighted that he ended up in telecom and witnessed the revolution it has ushered into people's lives. "The phone has moved from a luxury to a necessity. When I left the army in 1997, incoming calls were Rs 16 a minute. A handset cost about Rs 30,000 and you would keep it for at least 10 years. It's been an amazing story and I am glad to have been part of it," he says.