MTHL, the Best Digitally Enabled site, has ticked all the boxes even for its EHS initiatives

The iconic Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL) project team that is rapidly building India’s longest sea bridge owes a lot to a slew of digital solutions for its impressive progress and efficiencies that has won the project the distinction of being recognized as the Best Digitally Enabled site across L&T Construction for 2020. “To decide our winner, we considered the number of functions or processes that digitalization had touched across the project,” explains Chief Digital Officer, L&T, S Anantha Sayana, “the width & depth of adoption, the benefits accrued both qualitative & quantitative, and the measures taken to improve digital awareness. MTHL came through them all with flying colours!”

Digitally, a cut above

Truly, the task for Anantha and his awards committee must have been relatively easier considering that MTHL has adopted almost every digital solution on offer relevant for the project. The team conducts regular drone surveys while the GIS portal is updated every 3 months with the results of drone photogrammetry; they have adopted 3D BIM for design, Procube for project monitoring, Asset Insight for P&M, WISA for workmen management and Cynergy for customer interactions. “For Material tracking, we used a number of digital solutions,” informs Digital Officer, Waseem Akram Mittygar. “75% of all concrete sourced has been routed through ConEase, fabricated materials are tagged & tracked using E‑Tap, we have tracked almost 450 precast segments, procured material is tracked as well as 100% of our OSD panels.”

“MTHL is one of the few sites that adopted digital Health Screening under WISA,” points out Krithika Venkatesh, Senior Manager – Digital, “which is a fool proof method of screening workmen as the data is picked up from the platform itself. Till January 1^st, 2021 they had already screened some 17,000 workmen.” This solution came in extremely handy during the workmen mobilization effort post the unlock.

Safety with a digital edge

The aggressive digitalization ‘push’ by Project Director, Dr Yungmook Na, Deputy Project Director, Sanjay Digambar Patil, EHS In-Charge Anand Kumar Upadhayay, Waseem and the digital team included several EHS-related solutions too that have helped improve their safety quotient at this particularly challenging site. “We take care of health and safety even before we start construction,” shares Sanjay, “for not only are they important to avoid injury but there are several other long-term benefits for the organization – happier, more satisfied people are better motivated, less inclined to leave us and less illness and injury result in better productivity,” he smiles. The safety digital solutions adopted by the team include VR, extensive use of the EHS app to record near misses & work permits and IB4U for P&M.

Virtual Reality – for a real feel of hazards

VR gives workmen a real feel of workplace hazards without the pain of having to experience them. “VR is an important part of our workmen induction schedule,” shares Waseem, “and we have also developed a marine PPE demonstration case that is specific to MTHL.” Post the unlock, when sites across the country were struggling to induct new labour that had little orientation to construction sites & methods, VR came in handy. “As of date, we have inducted nearly 5,000 workmen using our VR gear,” he informs.

Recording safety observations digitally

Site engineers use the EHS App to record prestart talks, report near misses and obtain work permits. “A typical day at MTHL starts with prestart briefings to workmen in their respective areas that are recorded on the EHS App for the management to see that the right safety culture is being followed right down the line,” says Anand. “It ensures that site engineers assess the EHS risks involved in their day-wise tasks, have successfully verified the site conditions, have taken applicable control measures and assured compliance.” After submission, the EHS in-charge can either approve or reject the form based on the details. The Site Engineer receives a push notification accordingly. All site engineers fill the forms daily in their respective areas that are monitored by the respective section heads/in-charges. “As of date, we have 278 active users of EHS App and 3949 prestart forms have been recorded,” shares Anand.

Near misses & work permits

Near miss reporting is an excellent EHS habit to prevent safety incidents. The EHS App has a defined flow of escalation to report and ensure prompt subsequent corrective action. There have been 171 near miss cases at the site registered on the EHS app, for which corrective measures are being taken.

Work permits are generated using the EHS App before start of works to obtain which, a thorough inspection of the work area is conducted and a predefined check list filled by the respective site engineer. “This process has substantially reduced delays,” observes Waseem. “A predefined flow ensures that work permits are sent to the concerned as a pdf file that can be downloaded as and when required. Notifications regarding the work permits are sent through push notifications in the app & mails to the concerned for timely action. As of date, we have 10,172 work permits and 278 active users.”

Inspection Before Use

IB4U or Inspection Before Use is being used by the P&M and EHS departments to ensure good & safe condition of assets, tools & tackles deployed at site. “IB4U helps to ensure timely inspections with prompt reminders,” says Waseem. “Presently, 184 registered assets & inspections are being carried out as per schedule.”

“We are digital, but our people make the difference!”

Sanjay proudly shares the organizational chart of his digital team headed by Waseem supported by Site Digital Coordinator, Ms Soumee Burman. “We have our own set of digital champions for each of our functions with the responsibility to both keep digitalization top priority and drill digital awareness right down the line.” He specially mentions Ms Saranya Srinivasan, Ms Prakriti Suri and Ms Priyanka Singh KM, the digital champions for interchange, inter tidal and EHS, respectively. “Thanks to the terrific efforts of the entire Digital team, our upto-date project status is available on a dashboard for all to see and understand. Yes, we are truly a digitally enabled site,” he smiles with satisfaction.