He is a GET from the 2008 batch. He is a BIS scholar. His wife, Sujatha Danthuluri, works as an Engineering Manager with L&T Hydrocarbon and he is heading a unique initiative for elevated & embedded structures for L&T GeoStructure so it will not be wrong to state that L&T runs in Krishna Karteek’s family. Presently, he has been delegated to the 2 X 660 MW Ennore SEZ Super Thermal Power Project as Planning In-charge to lend a helping hand to the Project Manager and team to fight against the pandemic and get things rolling at site.

“On 24^th March we had 501 workmen at site; on 28^th May we had only 8!” Krishna sizes up his problem. “Secondly, even when the lockdown was relaxed, site operations could not resume as the personnel were all staying 15 km away and could not travel so we appealed to the client (BHEL) for 15,000 sqm of space within the site to build a new labour colony. With concerted team effort, we received their approval in July and work has commenced,” Krishna informs.

His next target was to remobilize workmen. “I got contacts from various ICs, seniors, our HR team and through the subcontractor mobilization app, we initially mobilized about 150 workmen in July. It was tough,” he says grimly, “as many of the sub-contractors were scared to return plus there were the individual lockdowns imposed by the respective state governments.” He stares for a moment. “That initial phase was most stressful. Things have improved since as we mobilized 300 in August and 350 in September touching 800 in all.”

Cost saving is a recurring theme at all sites and Krishna has lent his efforts to cut overheads by reducing piling equipment based on front end utilization “Further, we reduced our departmental staff to 48 from an original strength of 90 and with this lean setup we invoiced INR 8 crores instead of INR 3 Crores for consecutive months.” His face reveals both relief and triumph as he reels off the progress numbers: Piling: 360 numbers; Concrete: 17,990 cum; Reinforcement: 1635 MT; Structural Steel Fabrication: 2029 MT.

Krishna flags off the subcontractor mobilization app as a boon. “By entering details of the project, location, nature & duration of work, we receive responses from various subcontractors in less than 6 hours that has helped a lot in workmen mobilization.”

‘Our family, our safety’ was a tagline introduced by the Government to spread the message of keeping oneself and one’s family safe from the threat of COVID-19. Rajesh Barskar at L&T GeoStructure’s Seawater Intake Project at Uppur, which is also his first with L&T, found the tagline most appropriate to drive the message of safety to his workmen and employees at site. “We have never seen a virus like this before and we have been telling our people that it is only by being careful and taking all the right precautions that you, your loved ones and colleagues can stay safe,” he explains.

Rajesh’s challenges at site are like that faced by most other sites across the country: the shortage of labour as many left as soon as the lockdown was announced or unable to return because of lack of transportation; non-availability of skilled workmen; and thirdly, workmen employed at site slowly losing hope and panicking due to the overwhelmingly negative news in the media. “They were disturbed,” observes Rajesh, “and therefore our first step was to improve their mental health. We asked them to ignore all the fake news and think positively. Only then could they work productively at site.”

In his capacity as Manager – Accounts, it has been Rajesh’s responsibility to arrange for all essential commodities for the workmen and staff, arrange for a Doctor and the healthcare team to be available round-the-clock. “In fact, the ready availability of medical care is one reason why we have been able to control the spread of the virus at our site restricting it to just 6 positive cases at the beginning amongst a workforce of 450,” he points out. “Thereafter, we have had no positive cases,” he smiles, “even after we have resumed operations to full steam.”

After joining L&T as a GET in 2011, Jagadeesh Soundararajan has grown in the organization with more responsibilities to prove his worth. Presently as Precast Yard and Shore Civil Work In-Charge at the 2x800 MW supercritical coal based thermal power plant at Uppur, Tamil Nadu, he is part of the exercise to achieve progress in the face of the pandemic. “I resorted to the basic principles of 3M focussing on Man, Machinery and Material,” he says. “With our first target being to mobilize workmen, we initially decided to try out with local labour but neither were they productive nor were they able to align to our safety and quality norms or match our schedules so we had to look elsewhere.”

“We motivated the subcontractors to deploy workmen, interacted closely with those who had remained with us, setting them small goals to achieve some quick wins to boost their morale and make them reach for bigger goals with additional effort,” shares Jagadeesh. As part of their action plan, the team identified activities planned for the following 3 months, mapped resource requirements, slightly tweaked the sequencing for more productivity and encouraged the extensive use of machinery. “We ensured timely availability of resources and material to the workmen to avoid any delays.”

Trust is the bedrock on which relationships are built and Jagadeesh acknowledges the need for trust between company and client. “We like our clients to challenge us, ask questions, request for our inputs. At the same time, we should be free to express ourselves when we think that clients are missing out on opportunities,” he observes. “The process of building trust usually starts off discussing little things before moving on to larger opportunities.”

For most projects, the lockdown not only robbed them of a clean two months of progress but the unlock came only a couple of months before the monsoon increasing pressure on teams like Dudekula Babavalli’s project team at the Runj Composite Gravity Dam project to complete critical works before the rains hit. “Our overall plan was to gear up and push progress to cover the target backlog to complete the project in the stipulated time,” he shares, looking serious. “Secondly, with the monsoon only two months away, we had to achieve our first milestone of filling the cut-off trench that is 300 m long, 30 m wide and 23 m below ground level.” Having described his challenge, Dudekula smiles, “We successfully filled the trench to 12 m thus saving our excavated foundation from flash floods from the adjoining water bodies.”

As directed by the client, the cut-off trench was to be filled only after complete dewatering to keep the trench founding level dry. “With the new SOPs in place, instead of manual labour for dewatering, we used pumps with less personnel to reduce the chance of any spread of infections,” he says. At the same time, the new SOPs were causing problems for their subcontractors to mobilize manpower. “We swiftly swung into action,” says Dudekula energetically, “by engaging with the locals who were experienced in similar functions and thereby reduced the time and effort for remobilization.”

Dudekula, though at his first project with L&T, yet brings with him rich experience of having worked on a host of other projects before joining L&T involving the construction of canals, pumphouses, reservoirs, pipelines, dams and canals and so he is certainly on familiar ground at the Runj project. “My seniors and team members have been very supportive and positive about the actions to be taken to improve our progress,” he says sincerely, “by providing 100% attention and assistance to achieve our interim target of filling the cut-off trench prior to the onset of the monsoon.”

While reading and listening to music are his favourite pastimes, Dudekula would love to spend more time with his family that includes, his wife, Ammu, daughter, Harshiya and son, Haron, like they did on a trip to Goa that he recalls with pleasure.

Before signing off, he says, “The initiatives taken by the Management to implement various welfare and safety measures during this pandemic, has increased my pride of being a part of this wonderful organization!”

If several of the L&T GeoStructure projects were quickly off the blocks as soon as the restrictions were relaxed, it was primarily because of their forward planning and as Nishant explains, his team too did not waste the inactive period of the lockdown. “We had e‑meetings with our Project Manager and teams to discuss our plan of action,” he shares. “We put together some microplans, setting our targets about starting work with the available manpower. Even our subcontractor mobilization plans from the green zone were in place with the result we could start work at site the very next day after the Unlock and started the first concreting within another 5 days.” Nishant looks suitably happy about their team’s achievement.

Of course, it was not easy but then nothing is, smiles Nishant. “Our client asked us to follow the protocol of the local DM in Kanpur by which only workmen from the green zone were allowed to work at site,” he points out. “We followed this protocol religiously by cross-checking every workman’s location before he was allowed into our site. We also followed all the other protocols of checking everyone’s temperature in the morning and evening, using masks, and maintaining social distancing as much as possible.” Quarantine facilities ensured that the new workmen did not mingle with the workforce already at site and timing of lunch breaks was staggered to avoid crowding.

He is proud of being a part of L&T for the way the company has implemented various welfare and safety measures during the time of the pandemic.

After Chennai’s second lockdown, it fell on Vasanth’s shoulders to procure passes for the transit of workmen and essentials. “First, I had to read more than 200 Circulars from the Central and State Governments to resume operations at site,” he begins. “Then, I had to deal with the District Collector or the District Magistrate as he is known here, the local authorities and the local police to ensure smooth operation. Convincing the government body was a big challenge,” he adds with a grimace. Mobilization of workforce was the other big issue. “I had to work with travel agencies, vendors, travel supervisors, drivers, the Thasildhar, RTO, the local government bodies and even the Deputy Director of BOCW to ensure that the workmen reached our site safely, in the process convincing all of them that we were strictly following all the SOPs at site to keep us all safe.”

PKP and the project team have quickly understood the constraints and have started working on new plans of action as he explains. “Keeping in mind our monthly schedule, we have been micro planning our day-to-day work activities and resource requirements after consulting with the Planning team to achieve and meet our milestones.” To push progress, the team has been convincing subcontractors to work both shifts while urging the client for timely approvals. “We have succeeded to a fair extent in our effort,” smiles a pleased PKP, “for we have achieved a volume of more than 5000 cum for the marine pile cap structures under these critical conditions.” PKP realizes that it has been excellent teamwork in a time of crisis. “We have been constantly supported by our Project Manager, Mr. Sanjeevi Perumal and the planning team to achieve the set targets,” shares PKP genuinely, adding that he would like to appreciate the efforts of his P&M and Quality teams as well for their continuous support.