Leading the P&M department at the Bangalore International Airport T2 project, N Lakshmanan or NLN as he is better known as, is proud that 50% of all Spider-lifts available in the country are presently operating at his site. “We chose Spider-lifts as the best-option to execute the Level 03 ceiling works and after discussions with all the major suppliers, we have ensured that the site has the required number of spider-lifts to achieve our project timelines,” he says, proud of his and his team’s achievement.
“BIAL is an interesting ‘Garden themed’ project, featuring a garden pavilion, a forest mound, a bamboo ceiling, water features and more,” he shares. “Owing to the complexity of the project, our initial challenge was to complete all the RCC works within stringent timelines and subsequently plan and sequence the P&M movement to achieve the overall milestone.” The team completed the RCC and had the Topping Ceremony at which point the pandemic struck with several disruptions in its wake.
NLN is a firm believer that digitalization will be a big differentiator going forward. “Our CEO & MD, SNS Sir’s vision to transform our company into a digitally driven organisation resulted in our department deploying IoT technology to capture real-time equipment data; to track equipment productivity, idle hours, usage and other analytics, that have helped us to take data driven informed decisions.” He mentions E-Indent, Digital Store, Power BI Dashboard, MEHA App and STS as some of the digital solutions used at site.
Project success is always a triumph of teamwork and NLN acknowledges the guidance and support he has received from Deputy Project Director, K.P. Maheshwarappa, Technical Services Head, Gilbert Raj, EHS Head, R.V. Sudhakar, P&M Head, G. Krishna Kumar, and client Mr. Ashok (AGM – BIAL MMTH). “My team comprising Prasath, Pradeep, Sudip Kumar Manik, Radhakrishnan and Selvam have worked tirelessly, coordinating with various departments to complete the work with precision.”
NLN’s association with L&T, which according to him is a committed organisation that takes their client seriously and extreme efforts to complete a project, began in 2006 at the Vizag submarine project after which he has managed P&M at the Mumbai International Airport and DAICEC projects and now at BIAL. “The inauguration of MIAL and DAICEC are some of my best professional moments.”
His native place is Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu. NLN is married to Jeyalakshmi, a homemaker, and they are blessed with two children, daughter, Nandhitha and son, Naveen. “My most memorable personal moment for which I am extremely thankful to God Almighty was to hold my 3-month-old daughter after a successful surgery and seeing her smile,” he shares emotionally.
R S Kannan walks around the Prestige Jindal City project site, feeling incredibly proud for as Finishing In-charge, he and his team have successfully completed 2108 flats and handed over 1700 flats to the customer. He allows himself a quick recap of his several achievements at site: his long hours to mobilise 600+ workmen within a short period during Phase 2 of the project; completing finishing works in 1313 flats, the Project Director praising him on his 15th work anniversary and, the day he was felicitated by the Cluster Project Manager for best and speedy handing over to the client. He quickly moves to see the progress of the remaining 150 flats where the finishing works are proceeding in full swing.
The project initially faced many challenges such as work restriction at site between 7 am to 7 pm; demobilization of workforce due to the pandemic, managing external grinding activity without causing dust pollution, progress in Cluster 2 of the project when Cluster 1 was already occupied by 1,000 residents, completing the activities in sequence and in co-ordination with various client agencies and so on. “Working in synergy and in a solution-oriented manner, we were able to overcome most challenges,” shares Kannan. When there was a shortage of labour during the pandemic to plaster the club house, Kannan initiated the deployment of a Boom Lift and a Rope Suspended Platform to successfully complete the external plastering.
Kannan is proud to be part of the many ‘firsts’ of the project – completion of 295 units of tiling in a month, highest in Prestige Projects; handing over 335 units to customers in a month; mobilization of 2,800 plus workmen in a span of 2 months post COVID. “We have secured many high value projects of Prestige in Bengaluru thanks to the timely milestones and impeccable quality of our project,” he remarks, with a wide smile.
Kannan joined L&T in 2006 as Site Engineer at the ITC factory project after which he has worked at the Honda Siel car factory, Estancia residential building, Eden Park South City, Renault Nissan car factory, Prestige Bella Vista and Presitge Sunrise projects before taking over as the Finishing in-charge of the Prestige Jindal City Project.
A native of Madurai, Kannan’s better half is N.S. Dhanalakshmi a homemaker, and they are blessed with a son, R.K. Shuraj babu and a daughter, R.K. Prajnaa. He loves to play cricket; playing with his children relaxes him.
“I’m a proud to work at L&T as it has changed my lifestyle,” he signs off.
SHOULDERING RESPONSIBILITIES!
J. Manivannan
Sr Construction Manager (Civil), B&F IC
From the day he joined L&T, one balmy morning in 2006, J. Manivannan has been incredibly proud of being part of building India of the 21st century, revelling in it at all the projects that he has been associated with. At the BIAL site, which is in its last leg of completion, he recollects milestones with a lopsided smile, “We completed all the flooring and cladding works within the stipulated time, maintaining the desired quality. The MD of BIAL, Mr Hari Marar, appreciated the quality of granite work. What better pat on the back can we get than that?”
Better co-ordination at the site with other disciplines, internal stakeholders as well as external client vendors was a challenge. With the hand over in sight, space management has become an issue as various other parties have started their installation works like BHS, art works, softscape teams, water feature and so on. Manivannan has taken the onus to be the single point of contact for co-ordination among all stakeholders, including the client vendors, convening daily meetings at site to resolve issues, be on the same page and achieve targets together.
Manivannan is all praise for his seniors who have supported him to achieve targets for planning procurement and his young, vibrant team who have worked hard to ensure that quality is never compromised. A proponent of digitalisation, he is excited that the Aconex app is used at site for all documentation work to increase data control and visibility, streamline time-intensive tasks, help in collaboration, connect teams, and reduce risks. “Apart from Aconex App we also use the Safety, Digital and Conquer apps effectively,” he adds.
With over 15 years of experience at L&T, Manivannan has worked at the BIAL Phase 1, BMRCL R4, Tech Mahindra, SAP LAB and WIPRO projects.
Hailing from Vellore, Tamil Nadu, Manivannan is married to M Ragini, a homemaker. They are blessed with a son, M Gurubaran. Whenever he finds some free time, he spends it travelling with his family. His most memorable personal moment is the day he became a father and professionally, the inauguration days of all his project.
17 YEARS WITH L&T, AND STILL GROWING
S. Chokka Nathan
Senior Construction Manager (ELEC), B&F IC
“There is real acknowledgement for hard work at L&T that I love and have experienced it all through my 17 years,” declares S Chokka Nathan, Head Project Controls for MEP, ICT & Airport Systems at the BIAL T2 project. “Every challenge is both an opportunity to learn, to groom oneself under some great leaders and give direction to one’s career that you will never get in any other organisation. In fact, I am lucky to have been groomed under the leadership of T. Nandakumar, a truly professional leader,” he shares with obvious respect.
Having joined L&T as a DET in 2005, Nathan is 9-projects-old yet his learning curve at his present posting has been the steepest, working on several ‘firsts’. “Developing and preparing detailed engineering and shop drawings on BIM Cloud 360 were new to the Indian construction industry as was identifying potential BIM modellers to carry out large scale complex project detailed engineering,” he points out. “We developed these along with our vendor partners for seamless interfacing, detailing, engineering and sequencing of works by setting up a BIM studio at site itself.”
While developing seismic supports, for the first time for Indian airports, was tough, so was sourcing tested and proven products in the market that were then tested at the CSIR-SERC (Structural Engineering Research Centre) government laboratory for compliance to seismic requirements saving cost and time inthe process. “Getting engineering approvals and manufacturing clearances for capital equipment like chillers, AHU, pumps, DGs, transformers and special packages like ICT and airport systems to consumables like nuts and bolts were also tough as the specifications were hybrid and complex in nature,” he shares.
Nathan is especially pleased with the payment milestones that he prepared for the project. “I justified the payment process, convinced all stakeholders including the PMC and client and got them approved,” he says, visibly proud of his contribution. “That process is still helping us maintain a positive cashflow for the last 3 years,” adding that the client invoicing target for the MEP & AS packages have been consistently surpassed for the last 3 financial years.
“My immediate superiors, Anne Sriram Kumar and Project Director, J. K. Shivaraj have full faith in me and my team to handle every challenge; their guidance and directions have helped me to add value to the project and take calculated risks for a good cause,” he says confidently.
Hailing from Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu, Nathan considers himself lucky to have found his life partner, Mahitha, only a year and a half ago. She is a homemaker. An ardent cricket fan, he loves to watch it regularly. Getting to spend some time with his father during his last days is something he holds dear to his heart.
“EVERYTHING IS FIGURE-OUTABLE!”
Prabhakaran Naganathan
Construction Manager (CIVIL), B&F IC
For N. Prabhakaran, life is too short to remain stressed for long. He believes that “everything is figure-outable,” which means he will persist in the face of any challenge and eventually figure out a way to face it, overcoming all obstacles with a solution in hand, a quality that has stood him in good stead as Section In-charge of the Public Terminal Building structure activities at the BIAL Terminal 2 project. “There is no question of ever giving up especially in front of the boss,” he remarks with a wide grin.
Managing the structure works at the BIAL T2 Terminal has been no easy task and Prabhakaran has been a part of several innovative strategies such as creating a supporting structure or enabling platform on top of the level 3 RCC slab to use smaller cranes for structural erection. Moving around site with agility, he remarks, “we circumvented problems by brain-storming several methodologies of completing the critical path roof construction and eventually arrived at the best possible method to execute the same. We have applied the same technique with our team toexpedite the progress of the elevator corridor bridge.”
He is quick to acknowledge the support of his seniors K P Maheshwarappa, Deputy Project Director of BIAL T2 and S. Sekaran, TFL Head – Construction of Common Secretariat Buildings, who have been pillars of support with their guidance to navigate tricky situations, prompt necessary approvals and empowerment to manage the responsibilities given to him. They taught me that “clarity comes from engagement, not thought and result-oriented action matters.”
Prabhakran joined L&T in 2011 at the CTS Siruseri project, with following stints at the HCL IT Park, Tech Mahindra IT Park and Statue of Unity projects. “Working at the SOU project was one of the most memorable experiences in my professional career! It is not every day you get to build the world’s tallest statue,” he quips. He is also excited to be part of the ‘Garden Themed BIAL T2 project’. “The construction of forest mounds, water features, and the elevated corridor bridge in a brown-field airport environment is a great experience, which I will cherish for a long time.”
Hailing from Neeravi, a village near Aruppukkottai in Tamil Nadu, Prabhakaran is married to Sathya, a homemaker with an interest in e-commerce. He spends his free time singing, listening to music, cycling, and cooking. His personal memorable is yet to come,” he laughs, “it will be the moment when I become a father!” Proud to be an L&T-ite, he says, “As an organization, L&T offers me moments of pure awe and wonder, OMG and the LOL moments, the team bonding, and all those fun moments that we look back to at the projects we have completed together makes life very interesting.”
EMPOWERED TO GIVE THE BEST!
Shrivathsan Srinivasan Swaminathan
Construction Manager (MECH), B&F IC
Shrivathsan SS has always been a problem solver, known for his logical thinking and methodical approach to deal with any situation. These were the qualities that helped him and team to mobilise around 2800 workmen in under 2 months, a benchmark achievement for the Prestige Jindal City project. “With minimal trains running during the July-August 2020 and facing shortage of labour, we discussed various strategies and airlifted over 150 workmen, brought another 400 odd on trains and 2300+ workmen on 50+ buses from West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand.” The success was sweeter for Shrivathsan as he was recognized as the Best Co-ordinator for labour mobilization during the pandemic.
Shrivathsan capably dealt with several challenges such as prescribed time for operations, stoppage of batching plants due to noise complaints, catering to huge concrete requirements within time, ensuring equipment availability by scheduling periodic maintenance to avoid breakdowns during critical hours, external grinding activity without dust pollution, constrained logistics to work and the requirement to maintain optimum stock of bulk materials through various initiatives.
He ensured that the P&M cost was in control through optimum utilization of equipment by periodical digital monitoring. For the huge task of concreting, he had a detailed monthly concreting programme which could be tracked with the asking rate. Both major and minor pours were so sequenced that no concrete was left undone for the day. Apart from this, Lean Implementation activities such as Last Planner system, and 5S were conducted periodically at site as well as during meetings to organise material stacking and ensure proper site logistics. He was part of BIM implementation at the school building and successfully completed the structure work with negligible rework.
From the GET batch of 2011, Shrivathsan’s first assignment with L&T was at the Arshiya International Project, Khurja and thereafter at the Modification of Jhansi Workshop. He got through the prestigious Build India Scholarship at IIT Delhi which unsurprisingly is one of the most memorable moments of his life. After stints at ITC Kapurthala, Asian Paints projects, now he is making his mark at his present assignment.
Hailing from Karaikudi, Shrivathsan’s wife Madhumita Chandrasekar is a Senior Software Engineer at Temenos, and the centre of their world is their 21-month-old son, Rihaansh M Vats. He enjoys playing chess and cricket during the weekends. His memorable moments include his wedding day, the birth of his son and the day he won a chess tournament at college.
“It is empowering to work at L&T for I get the opportunities and responsibilities to explore my potential,” says Srivathsan, looking into the future. “In another ten years, I envision myself with greater responsibilities, leading projects of great size and scale – opportunities that my friends in other companies can only dream of.”
ALWAYS FOCUS ON THE TASK, AND FINETUNE ALONG THE WAY
Ebi Joseph D
Construction Manager (Civil), B&F IC
There is a crisp clarity to Ebi Joseph’s approach to work. “Fix the deadline, and accordingly, finish the job taking timely decisions wherever required,” he remarks, almost shrugging as if to say, “so what’s the big deal”. About the Prestige Jindal City project where he is currently posted, he shares, “We had to work on a 7 am to 7 pm schedule and working to that rhythm we maintained a cycle time of 8 days, floor to floor. We set the gangs accordingly and it was almost an auto mode of action, and our client was impressed to see the results.” This approach has held him in good stead through his tenure with L&T that he joined in August 2011 and is now on his 8th project. “L&T is a purely performance-oriented company. When I joined, I had decided to switch companies every 5 years, but the way the Company has been acknowledging my performance, I am already into my 12th year here,” he smiles with a thumbs up.
Things have, however, been tough at his project and he patiently enumerates several of his challenges. “First, there is inter-departmental co-ordination for all departments were working in isolation, the timely procurement of material was a humongous task, we had to prevent the workforce from idling long for work and ensure competency from our subcontractors and workmen.” Upgrading systems procedure, digitalization, the pandemic, the working restrictions, all added to his tonne of challenges.
Ebi and team have been addressing these various issues and pushing progress with frequent inter-department meetings, arriving at timelines to process each material based on the available buffer stock and keeping track of pending GST-related issues to ensure on time payment to the subcontractors. “We closely monitor floor activity to maintain a smooth flow of progress, taking instant decisions to speed up the work. We allocate work depending on the strength of the workforce that has helped create a feel-good factor at site,” he smiles. An index of their success is their mobilization of 1,000+ workmen during the first wave of the pandemic. “Whenever I am struggling with an issue, I immediately approach my seniors with three different solutions to select the best option mutually,” says Ebi about his approach to troubleshoot.
On his home front, hailing from Tamil Nadu’s Thirunelveli district, Ebi is married to S.Hepzi, who is already a B.Sc and MCA, is studying B.Ed and a homemaker, looking after their daughter, Hilarin Jessi. E. “I always organize my time, making daily schedules. During my free time, I like to read books.”
A highpoint of his professional life was in 2013 when the then Gujarat Chief Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, inaugurated the Mahatma Mandir and appreciated L&T’s work. “It blew my mind,” he laughs.