STAYING CONNECTED WAS THE KEY!

How L&T GeoStructure sites stayed safe from COVID-19 

Speak to any Project Manager from L&T GeoStructure and chances are that you will hear them singing the same tune about how they prepared themselves and their respective sites to combat the threat of COVID-19. “The situation was unprecedented and the kind of issues that were arising were completely new but by being coordinated and concerted in our overall approach, we were able to face and overcome most challenges,” says a very determined looking
K P Ravinath (KPRn), Head – EHS, L&T GeoStructure. “Right from day one, we remained connected, speaking to each other daily, discussing each problem threadbare and evolving solutions that had everyone’s buy in. Staying connected was critical,” he asserts.

Calming the agitated workmen

As news of the pandemic layered with a substantial dose of rumours and fake news started making the rounds, the agitation amongst the workmen was only to be expected. For Junior Engineer – EHS, Vibin Mathew at the Chennai Metro Rail project, these were hugely testing times. “As a safety professional, we faced several challenges during the lockdown, the most critical being to monitor and control our thousand odd workmen.” The task was tougher for Vibin and team as the number of positive cases in Chennai was steadily climbing and their workmen were located across five different locations some of which were red hot zones like Tondiarpet and Royapuram and with no work, it was extremely difficult to prevent them from wandering out of their camps. “Initially, they were unaware about the virus and its impact which was why they were agitated so our first task was to calm them down by making them understand about
COVID-19, about the prevailing situation and what L&T was prepared to do for them,” says a very practical Vibin.

Project Manager, Sreejith Menon at the 1X660 MW Panki Thermal Power Plant at Panki, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh echoes Vibin. After arming himself with all the relevant information from reliable sources about the pandemic, Sreejith shared it with his staff and workmen. “Communication is key in such situations and our first task was to secure the work force and keep them safe from any infections by educating them about the seriousness of the situation and train them to follow a healthy lifestyle.”

“It is difficult to communicate with an agitated mind,” interjects KPRn, “and hence our effort across projects was first to calm the workmen down to bring them to a state in which they would listen to us. Once we were satisfied that we had achieved this first objective, we started on our next step to educate them through pep talks, awareness programmes and personal interactions.”

Safety in distance and hygiene

The one line brief for every employee and workmen across all sites was to maintain social distancing at every point – at work, when traveling to and from the site, at the camps, at homes – and follow strict personal hygiene norms. “We took several serious steps to educate even the subcontractors and the manpower of suppliers in advance,” says Rajaneesh Rai Kumar, Project Manager — Navigational Lock project at Farakka, West Bengal, “to maintain discipline in their daily meetings, practice social distancing and take other precautionary measures at the workplace.”

Maintaining good health of the employees and workmen was top priority for all EHS managers as it was for M Arun, EHS In-charge of the Panki Powerhouse project. “Apart from regular medical camps for the entire workforce we put in place a clear SOP,” he points out. All newly inducted workmen were necessarily quarantined for 14 days and engaged to work at site only after a medical check-up. “Our existing workmen who were put up at our camp were thermally temperature scanned daily before being allowed into the site while those who stayed outside were medically checked every day before start of work.” The stringent measures instituted by Arun and team at site have yielded excellent results: zero reported cases from their site! 

Staying prepared to restart

“The TN government’s initiative to start various businesses is a welcome move as we have to quickly adapt to the ‘new normal’,” says Senior Engineer – Execution, M Adarssh with great gusto from the Chennai site but resumption of operations has been fraught with challenges with the exodus of a large number workmen and the construction industry is hoping for a reverse migration for work to return to full gear. 

“Although everything stopped during the lockdown, we could not afford to,” declares Project Manager, Tulasi Das Govvada at the JSW site at Paradip. “Suddenly stopping work would have adversely affected the safety of the coal handling terminal we are constructing, so we had no alternative but to continue work albeit with minimum resources and with strict adherence to all the COVID-19 directives and other safety measures. We only operated essential and critical works deploying the necessary manpower on a rotation basis to monitor the construction.” Tulasi Das’s steps have been spot on because not only have they negotiated the lockdown but have continued forging ahead even after the relaxations were announced.

Staying connected pays

“We established good PR with all the local administrative authorities taking them into confidence like the local police departments, BDO, the local MLA and political parties who supported the team during the crisis,” shares Rajaneesh, “and each department head has taken the initiative to interact daily with their team before start of work which has become a practice now. We also maintained excellent relationships with the client that has also stood us in good stead,” he smiles. Project Manager, R Ravikumar, at the Sea Water Intake Project in Uppur shares the same sentiment. “For me personally, staying back at site actually helped because I was able to continuously follow up with my client for an early start, received permission to restart on 26th April and started all activities the very next day,” he says with an obvious sense of achievement.

Constant communication worked very well even for the project team. “As a matter of fact, by motivating them, I kept myself motivated,” says Assistant Manager – Planning, Nikhil Pasari from the JSW site with a smile, “and it drove me to do my best to provide comfort and motivation to all my colleagues.”

“The overall situation across the world is still grim more so in India,” remarks KPRn. “The COVID-19 threat is still very alive and our message to all Project and EHS Managers is not to lower their guard even for a moment because although safety of all at site is important keeping the business going is equally critical.”