As Project Planning Lead at the MEGA ballast-less track work project, Ahmedabad, Shashitheja H R considers it a privilege to work in L&T and to be involved in several areas of work right from customer interactions, vendor management, financial, resource & contract management and, last but not the least, to monitoring and cost control. “I always keep in mind the saying, “There is no end to learning, but there are many beginnings” and think that every day is giving a new direction and beginning to my life,” he shares philosophically.
A GET of batch 2013, Shashitheja initially worked at the Chennai Metro Phase 1 project as Points and Crossing Installation Engineer. “In 2015, I got the opportunity to join NIT Trichy to do my M Tech. under L&T’s BIS scheme,” he says with gratitude, and on his return, started his Ahmedabad assignment. “I started with butterflies in my stomach as this was my first job as a Project Planner in a demography where the culture and society were so very different, but soon I settled down, got involved with my job and now I am enjoying myself, celebrating every milestone we have achieved over the last five years,” he says with immense satisfaction.
Like all planning managers, Shashitheja must face the challenges of cost control, resource utilization, arrangement of manpower, machinery, procurement, and reconciliation of materials and, according to him, to be successful it is important to understand customer expectations well before going all guns blazing. “Knowing the scope of work contractually is very crucial,” he reminds. At the customer’s request to accelerate progress to achieve their big milestone of going operational in September 2022, Shashi and his team had to get into micro level planning to understand the requirements considering worst-case scenarios.
“Our prime focus was on improvising the set processes to reduce timelines and financials with better quality and safety,” he says. “We designed, developed and implemented templates for check rail bracket dowel installation as well as third rail dowel installation during pre-pour of concrete to reduce cycle time, extra works like core cutting, and cost of execution. The whole team had many sleepless nights, worked round the clock and I am delighted that we were able to achieve this task wonderfully, up to the expectations of the customer.” They are now charged for anything and everything to deliver the project as per schedule.
Shashitheja hails from Chikkamagaluru, a hill station in Karnataka, and is married to Ashwini Shastry, a post graduate degree holder in Physics and a B.Ed graduate who worked as a teacher until 2017 and is now a homemaker. “I enjoy playing badminton, travelling, and trekking. The day on the summit in Roopkund Trek is very special to me,” he recalls with a dreamy look.
ALL-ROUND GROWTH GUARANTEED
Yenneti Rama Krishna
Construction Manager (Civil), Railways SBG
Yenneti Rama Krishna is convinced that he is at the right place at the right time. “It is always a privilege to work in an esteemed organization where one will get opportunities to grow their knowledge and skills,” he remarks. “As a Construction Manager with L&T, I am involved in all the areas of work from customer interactions, interface, resource, and construction management that give me the opportunity to showcase my skills, knowledge, and be recognized by key stakeholders like the Customer, Engineer and peer companies. I believe in the saying, “Learn and apply, a powerful weapon to change and add benefit to the organization’s value,” and that learning and application I have received at L&T since the day I joined as a GET on July 8th, 2013!”
Presently, at the Ahmedabad Metro ballast-less track work project, his main challenge has been discontinued access due to the linear nature of the project. “To complete a project within the limited time frame, the Customer has to provide the Contractor bulk access at discrete locations,” he says forcefully. “Another challenge we faced was the Customer’s delay to finalize the special Noise and Vibration track requirement in the tunnel making the location isolated for track execution in confined spaces for a longer length with only limited temporary openings.”
Despite these, with the target having been fixed by the PMO and with the daily asking rate rapidly rising, Yenneti and team had no option but to evolve methods to deliver. “We did micro ground level planning on a regular basis for timely deployment of additional execution teams, and made strategies to effectively utilize the deployed resources,” he shares. Similarly, to lay the MSS track in an isolated location of 450 m inside the tunnel with hardly any space for resource handling, special attention was given to monitor the concrete design mix and its workability to deliver the concrete at a length of 450 TM. “My way of working is to ‘Identify, think, look around, work with/modify, and apply – resolving the issues with the resources available or by modifying the existing resources to reduce cost, time in procurement and increase productivity.”
Having completed the targeted works in time, Yenneti is delighted with the resultant appreciation from their client. “We were able to complete the plinth/slab casting in the tunnel and viaduct by ensuring that all the interfaces and system requirements were met during execution.”
Hailing from Vizag, Andhra Pradesh, Yenneti is married to Anusha, a graduate in M Pharmacy, and now a homemaker and they were blessed with a baby boy, Vikram Chandan, in May 2022. “My hobbies are playing cricket, badminton, watching and learning new techniques in the construction industry for rapid construction, and, of course, spending time with family,” he smiles winningly.
“I AM NOT AFRAID OF FAILURE.”
Emamul Pavel
Assistant Manager (Civil), Railways SBG
“I am not afraid of failure,” nods Emamul Pavel emphatically, perhaps one of the most defining reasons for his success as Project Planning Head at the Kanpur & Agra Metro Track work project. “Being a good communicator too, I find it easy to relate to other people. In my last role and with my previous experience, we tried to streamline our logistics process and supply chain activity. However, the initial failures taught us the errors in our previous procedures. My team and I therefore came up with a more successful strategy to avoid those mistakes and ended up increasing the plinth casting average progress up to 170–190 track-metre per day with 3 teams.”
After joining L&T in July 2008, Emamul’s first posting as Planning Engineer was at the Joda East Railway Siding Joda, Odisha and the 10 MTPA Railway Corridor of Tata Steel, Jamshedpur. Thereafter, he was Cluster/BU Coordinator and Lead MIS for the Eastern Cluster, Kolkata (KKRO) till February 2019, was Supply Chain Management Coordinator for a couple of years before taking up his present assignment. Therefore, in terms of experience, Emamul was well-prepared to take on the new challenges of a new role.
After the pandemic had hit labour mobilization and supply chain for a six, the team buckled down from June 21 to October 21, to plan round-the-clock activities to meet the client’s deadline of commissioning the 18.892 TKM section for revenue operations from December 28, 2021. “An extremely stiff demand, we focussed on completing activities like Flash Butt Welding, AT Welding, Plinth Casting, and Rear Works,” he shares their plan of action. “The only way to make up for lost time was to transport material on loan from Kochi Metro and UPMRCL, Lucknow, airlifting Elastic Pads from Austria and Tension Clamps from China-PR to meet our casting per day target & relevant activities for Commissioning preparedness.” He is visibly exultant that they were able to delight the client by meeting their specific requirement.
“It is important to understand your customer, his expectations and to constantly communicate with them. Similarly, I communicate with my individual team members to guide them with the result, I gain technical expertise,” he shares his mantra for success. “Always keep an eye on the time and never put off making a decision.”
Emamul hails from Shyamsundar, in West Bengal’s Purba Bardhaman district. His better half, Adila Rahaman Shah, is a B. Ed. in Literature, who worked at Cognizant till November 2017 but is now a homemaker looking after their son, Aarabhya Eehaan. Listening to all types of music, reading, and traveling are what keeps him going. On a personal note, he shares, “During my third-year college, when I told my parents that I was selected for a campus interview, I noticed a tear in their eyes, and realised their pain to get me to this position. I will never forget that.”
FRESH OFF THE BLOCKS
AND RARING TO GO
Praphulla Singh Yadav — Assistant Manager, Railways SBG
Praphulla Singh Yadav is very new to L&T having joined the Company on March 9th, 2021 but is already a part of the mainstream and doing his fair bit, first at the Kanpur Metro project and currently, at the Agra Metro Rail project. “Meeting the necessary milestones results in customer delight,” he says emphatically. “When the track contract was awarded in February 2021, it was the customer’s goal to start revenue operations for the first phase of 18.892 Track-Km by December 2021. That we were able to complete it with proper planning and scheduling and thereby meet the customer’s requirement with quality and a passion for perfection is a huge victory for our team,” he enthuses.
He is only too aware of the inherent challenges that the project faces which was awarded when the pandemic was at its peak and with extremely demanding delivery deadlines set by the client. “We have a challenge to understand the customer’s requirements and whenever there is a crisis, we seek the assistance of our seniors to avoid delays and they have always guided us to overcome obstacles. When need occurs, collaborative effort works well,” he remarks with the wisdom and confidence born out of realizing that he is in great company. “I am so lucky to work with a constantly growing organisation like L&T where we can bring innovative ideas and a fresh perspective to the project,” he says with feeling. “I truly appreciate the time given by the senior management for this project.”
As with all other projects, the pandemic resulted in labour leaving the site in big numbers and supply chains being thrown out of gear leaving project teams scrambling to bring things back to some semblance of normalcy. Things were no different at Praphulla’s project. “Our planning team mobilised local vendors to procure materials and manpower and trained our FLS teams to supervise the work,” he shares the team’s plan of action to overcome the pandemic-caused disruptions. “We conducted regular meetings with each sub-contractor and used references from previous projects with the help of our senior management like Cluster/BU/ SCM for clarity of our scope of work. We even prepared a master work scope matrix for the BLT and BT Work for more clarity of the sub-contractor’s role,” he nods.
On his personal front, Praphulla hails from Azamgarh in UP, is married to Kusum Lata, a homemaker, and their son, Parth is obviously the apple of Praphulla’s eyes. “Being blessed with my son is my most precious personal moment,” he says emotionally. “I like playing cricket and planning for my work during my spare time.” A highpoint of his career was being appointed Project Manager for the Pune Metro at AIPL.
