Shashikanta Tripathy,
Head — Planning & Project Control,
Mumbai-Vadodara Expressway project, TI IC
Amaravati-Jalgaon-MH Boarder road project as Project Control. I was then Planning in-charge of the Sambalpur Rourkela Road Project in Odisha.” His latest milestone has been the 8‑lane, greenfield Mumbai-Vadodara Expressway where he heads Planning and Project Control.
A seasoned veteran of 22 years, Shashikanta Tripathy, or SKT for short, has been merrily building roads in a rich and successful 17-year tenure with L&T. “I began my journey with L&T in 2003 as Section In-charge at the Jharkhand Road project from where I moved to the Rajkot Jamnagar Vadinar Road Project as Planning in-charge for one of the packages of 56 km and then to the
“Oh yes,” he nods, “we have had a few challenges to face like the availability of labour to handle the huge quantum of structural concrete we use at this project. Utility shifting in road projects is always a headache and another big issue was the procurement of mining approvals in Gujarat for borrow soil which forms a large component in our construction in terms of volumes.”
SKT’s solutions to overcome these challenges are extremely practical. “We have maintained round the clock operation at site. We invite and act on suggestions from the execution team to improve execution, we conduct various types of training at site for even small activities before execution and continuously followup with site, production and P&M teams.” A major challenge faced at site was to shift approximately 1,800 MT of cut-bent reinforcement steel every month since this was a greenfield project with limited access to the site for which two teams were dedicated round the clock. “We have reduced DG power consumption by placing solar panels on the boom placer cabin and other locations.
By monitoring unloading time of concrete we have increased the productivity of transit mixers and by casting the concrete girders close to site, we have overcome the issue of transporting them.”
While Procube monitors daily progress, Asset Insight monitors asset utilization. “Fuel sensors have been fitted on 40 major machines to monitor fuel level differences,” adds SKT, “also equipment working is tracked in real time.”
“Having worked in the construction field, there are several instances at site when we have to take on-the-spot calls or instant decisions and people should have the flexibility to do so at project level,” advises the veteran.
Hailing from Bhadrak, Odisha, SKT loves to watch the news on TV and listen to music. “My wife, Soudamini, is a homemaker with a keen interest in cooking and teaching,” he shares, which is good news for their two children, daughter, Sneha and son, Saijeet.