Safety is the result of a well considered, well-planned and well-executed strategy and sites that have good safety records are the ones that have done well. It requires discipline, purpose and constant focus but, above all, a mind towards safety that is critical to create a safe work culture that in turn leads to the creation of a safe work environment. It calls for a mindset that appreciates the need for safety and recognizes that by following the prescribed EHS conditions, everyone at site can remain safe, injury-free and return to their loved ones at the end of every shift.

One of the many Safety Champions at site whom we have featured in our special ECC News issue on Safety mentioned that a safe environment is one in which all feel nice to work in without fear that directly leads to improved productivity. Our endeavour should be to make every site of L&T Construction a safe one.

Ours is an organization which lays a lot of emphasis on learning from our past mistakes, with special focus on near misses. These are leading indicators which need to be dealt with seriously to prevent potential future occurrence of accidents. It is also important for the site leadership team to create a positive EHS culture which encourages everyone to actively participate in maintaining a safe environment, with strong ownership at every level. 

We must not follow safety because the Project Manager says so or the EHS Manager insists. We should follow safety as a matter of standard operating procedure so that even unconsciously we do not indulge in unsafe practices. The ideal site is one in which every person working there is a Safety Manager with the attitude and approach of an EHS manager, completely aware of their responsibilities. A single fatality or injury at site very often leads to a whole family being devastated. We cannot afford a single fatality or injury because lives are too precious to be lost thus.

Almost every aspect of construction has been touched by digitalization that is fast rewriting the rules of the way we do business. The ‘connected workman’ and the ‘connected EHS manager’ equipped with IoT, AI, AR & VR and a host of other digital tools are already a reality and our efforts must remain focussed and unwavering to take advantage of the many digital tools and solutions to constantly improve safety at our sites and reach our end goal of ‘Vision Zero’.