ecchelmet Mumbai Metro Line‑3 wins the
Golden Peacock OHS Award — 2021
A challenge loomed for Project Director Aloke Kumar Dey and EHS Head Rajesh Bhandari of the Mumbai Metro Line‑3 project when the proposal to participate in the Golden Peacock OHS Award 2021 was accepted. “Every award has its unique way of evaluation and a challenge with certain mustdo commitments, although certain criteria are common,” mentions Aloke, who is the right person to make this statement, having led his project to a series of other awards including the Golden Peacock award in 2019, RoSPA ‘Golds’ in 2019 and 2021, and a special appreciation of merit from the British Safety Council in 2021.
We know the importance of such an award that is the most powerful way to show our commitment towards Occupational Health & Safety. Being a dynamic project where situations change every day, we are working to implement the safest practices in every phase of work.
Aloke Kumar Dey
Project Director, Mumbai Metro Line‑3
On winning the coveted Golden Peacock OHS Award 2021, Aloke in his acceptance message said, “these were opportunities to be evaluated on various criteria and align ourselves to stand tall by reasonably satisfying the most of those evaluation criteria. We know the importance of such an award that is the most powerful way to show our commitment towards Occupational Health & Safety,” he stresses. “Being a dynamic project where situations change every day, we are working to implement the safest practices in every phase of work.”
What has worked well for Aloke, Rajesh and team since the challenging project began in July 2016 and helped them clock 21 million safe manhours till date is advanced planning and the involvement of every department to execute every activity with utmost adherence to quality & safety, monitored by the senior management. “Of course, our digital solutions like BIM for safety, Virtual Reality training for employees at all levels and online safety Apps to monitor day-to-day activities have also helped us enormously,” smiles Rajesh.
Leading from the front
To maintain high EHS standards at a project site, it is imperative for them to be visibly driven by the leadership, and from word ‘go’, Aloke and his senior colleagues have been on top of the EHS agenda. “We demonstrate our leadership & commitment towards EHS through personal examples and actions,” he points out, “which is why every day before start of work, the EHS pledge is administered in the local language under the chairmanship of either the PM or the Section in charge, apart from regular EHS inspection tours.” These are in the form of weekly safety walk downs, biweekly safety tours, weekly meetings, monthly OHSE committee meetings, monthly motivational programmes, daily toolbox talks, special trainings, site trainings and prestart briefings. Deploying the right kind of and sufficient manpower is equally important, and they are frequently trained and updated about EHS requirements.
L&T STEC JV Mumbai HOD-OHSE, COHSEM and need-based invitees from other departments jointly review our EHS Management system at least once in six months to ensure its continuing suitability & effectiveness.
Rajesh Bhandari
EEHS Head, Mumbai Metro Line‑3
“L&T STEC JV Mumbai HOD-OHSE, COHSEM and need-based invitees from other departments jointly review our EHS Management system at least once in six months to ensure its continuing suitability & effectiveness,” remarks Rajesh. The reviews assess opportunities for improvement and the need for changes, including EHS policy & objectives.
Aloke remarks that whenever he visits the sites, his mind is always only driven to EHS aspects and whatever he sees or points out to his team is mostly related to housekeeping and doing the works innovatively on matters related to EHS.
Noise barrier
Planning to keep safe
Central to the project’s EHS agenda are plans, as Rajesh says, to ensure everyone returns home safe after every shift. It almost seems as if he has a plan for everything — a health plan for the workmen, a noise mitigation plan, disaster & monsoon preparedness plans, a water management plan and a Swachhata Bharat action plan. “We have a programme that gives 96 hours of continuous training and now our COVID-19 SOPs are well in place,” he adds.
Near miss reporting is considered a good EHS practice and the team rewards those who report 5 near misses in a month apart from placing boxes for innovative ideas and suggestions. A ‘Safety Champion’ is identified from every group of 20 workmen to monitor work at ground level while the 6 E initiative is key to achieve Mission Zero Harm.
Apart from motivational programmes for workmen, the EHS team has a competent emergency rescue team with all the requisite emergency equipment. “Health is an important component of EHS,” mentions Rajesh, who has several initiatives in place to keep his colleagues and workmen safe. “We conduct regular health check-ups, vertigo tests for those who work at heights, special health check-ups for the cook and all are tested for HIV free of cost.” The blood groups of workmen are listed for any emergency, there are COVID-19 & tetanus vaccination drives, eye wash facilities and emergency lighting at all prominent locations. “We also conduct warm-up exercises, meditation and do laughter therapy,” adds Rajesh.
With BIM for safety we have significantly improved our proficiency and design safety while VR training is proving to be most useful especially for employees working at heights.
Aloke Kumar Dey
Project Director, Mumbai Metro Line‑3
To ensure the safety of men and material, the project team has ensured that all electrical cables routing over metallic hooks are provided with nylon sleeves to avoid direct contact of cable with metal, bar bending machines are equipped with fingerprint authentication, anemometers installed at all lifting equipment to monitor wind speeds, direction, etc. and a wellequipped emergency control room for stations & tunnels with 24x7 CCTV surveillance. All employees at site are trained in fire safety and these trainings are mandatory, covered in a 96-hour module. “We conduct fire drills every week at every site in which workmen and staff are engaged and conduct special training on fire by external agencies to improve the competency of the emergency rescue team,” says Rajesh. The team has conducted fire training at the Byculla Fire Station and recently conducted Basic Fire Fighting and Basic Life Support (First Aid) Training by an external agency to handle fire extinguishers and emergency situations.
Technologies and innovative strategies to drive EHS
Aloke is particularly proud to flag off the various digital solutions adopted to keep the project’s EHS performance at a high level. “With BIM for safety we have significantly improved our proficiency and design safety while VR training is proving to be most useful especially for employees working at heights.” Sequencing and prioritizing of works are done through the BIM model in the design stage from the viewpoint of EHS risks. Prestart briefings & near misses are uploaded daily on the online EHS App, apart from raising critical observations, and escalating matters to the top if not promptly resolved. The IB4U App helps inspect & track various categories of equipment like safety harnesses, fire extinguishers, RCCBs, vehicles, earth moving equipment and more. One drive that Aloke always believes and implements at all his sites is ‘Clean your own’, according to which each of his workforce must clean their surroundings at least once a month.
Ambient air monitoring
Drinking water testing
This third-party audit has empowered us to review the commitment of the management to effectively implement OHS, participation, and involvement of our work force and results thereof.
Rajesh Bhandari
EHS Head, Mumbai Metro Line‑3
Another capital move has been to introduce Third Party audits by M/s Bureau Veritas every quarter from April 2017 to measure the effectiveness of site’s EHS management system, manage risks, identify risk factors that could unduly affect the quality of the workplace and ensure the health and safety of the employees and workmen. It helps keep workmen out of danger, avoid legal risks, increase efficiency, and determine whether they are compliant with federal and state regulations. “This third-party audit has empowered us to review the commitment of the management to effectively implement OHS, participation, and involvement of our work force and results thereof,” adds Rajesh, for whom, the audit identified potential safety hazards not covered by the existing control procedures, recommended improvements for better effectiveness of existing procedures, systems, and control measures for hazards. “Our project has not received any legal non-compliance, penalties or complaints since inception,” sums up Aloke, proudly.
“As we move towards a zero-harm vision through our L.I.F.E. (Live Injury Free Each Day) programme, there requires a game-changing shift from management and a complete and gradual overhaul of what was done in the past to meet the current business model,” says Aloke, looking ahead, “because if we don’t have a vision or goal, how can we know or convince all our stakeholders when we have arrived?”