POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION IC
Edson Thangwana,
Manager – EHS (PT&D IC)
“I am a former football player and now an ardent soccer fan,” shares Edson Thangwana with a happy smile that soon fades as he adds, “but these days I hardly get the time for it due to my hectic schedule at site and obviously the present COVID situation.” Edson manages the EHS requirements of two PT&D sites in Tanzania: the 220 kV transmission line for Standard Guage Railway, stretching 159 km from Dar es Salaam to Morogoro and the construction of 2×220 kV Substations at Geita & Nyakanazi. The outbreak of COVID-19 has multiplied his responsibilities. “Oh, I have had to face huge challenges,” he shakes his head. “There was a serious shortage and non-readiness of Health Institutions to respond and test the virus in Tanzania, insufficient number of test kits, unavailability of PPEs locally due to constraints in the supply systems, bottlenecks and delays in communication.” He faced barriers in educating the workmen on the importance of handwashing and making them understand the broader perspective of breaking the chain and resistance to use PPEs. “But our biggest challenges were language and cultural diversity.”
With speed the need of the hour, the seniors stepped forward and with Edson and team established an ERT to start evacuating suspected members. “I was put in charge to report daily on the progress of the isolated staff liaising with health facilities,” shares Edson. “The EHS team of Gloria Raphael Baha, Meshack Matungwa and Health & Safety stewards assisted to ensure various safety precautions by implementing the highest standards of sanitation initiatives and awareness training in the local language. I couldn’t have done this without such a supportive team, they really stepped up to make this happen.” Apart from all the advisories, informative posters, tool box talks, social distancing and sanitization that they followed rigorously, Edson mentions a reward and recognition scheme that they introduced as well as a penalty system for critical lapses in Health & Safety that worked well.
“My native place is Mukondeni village in the Limpopo province of the Republic of South Africa,” he shares. Edson’s life partner is Mokgadi Constance and they are blessed with two boys, Boitshepo Thangwana who is 17 and 11-year-old Kamogelo Thangwana. “One of my most memorable moments was when I won the RoSPA Gold Award at the first site for the Africa BU at Malawi and another when we handed over the first of Malawi’s two major National 400 kV Substations under Millennium Challenge Compact at Nkhoma & Phombeya which was also my first project with L&T!”
“L&T is a school of excellence and pro-actively supports and motivates career development,” he declares. “I feel honoured and proud to be part of this global conglomerate and my confidence was further bolstered when L&T formally presented me with an appreciation at my work anniversary. L&T to me is family away from family!”
Theerawat Haramee,
Supervisor – EHS (PT&D IC)
Thailand, unlike India, did not go in for a complete lockdown that obviously put extra pressure on the citizens to safeguard their health and safety against COVID-19. It also put extra pressure on the site leadership and EHS personnel like Theerawat Haramee to ensure that the workmen and employees remained safe at the two PT&D projects that he is responsible for – the 500 kV Chom Bung – Bangsaphan 2 Transmission Line and the 500kV Bangsaphan 2 – Surat Thani 2 Transmission Line. It was, however, relatively easier for Theerawat, “because we were all in it together as a team. The seniors in the organization and the team members were very supportive and we had effective participation from the sub-contractor side as well that helped us to achieve a 100% COVID-19-free construction site.” Another sterling example of teamwork!
With the number of positive cases in Thailand rising alarmingly, it was not all hunky dory. “It was imperative therefore to take the utmost precautions to arrest the spread of the virus,” he observes. “We ensured that proper hygiene was maintained both at the site and at their places of stay, social distancing was maintained wherever possible, put restrictions on the addition of new workmen and spread awareness among the workmen.” Theerawat and team gave pep talks, urged everyone to extensively use face masks and sanitizers, regularly inspected the workmen’s camp and site to ensure hygiene and checked temperature to identify symptomatic individuals. “I remember an incident when one of our workmen reported high temperature. My team responded immediately to take him to the nearby hospital, conduct the necessary checks to confirm that he was not COVID positive,” he shares and adds, “such immediate response and situation readiness measures make me really proud to be a part of this organization!”
Theerawat mentions the COVID tracker app to identify the most affected areas in Thailand. “New workers before resuming site work had to go through a mandatory pre-screening to understand their work movements and check for symptoms,” he says. “Some were sent back and sometimes considered after a mandatory 14-day quarantine procedure.”
“My native place is Phihit province in the north of Thailand,” he reveals a little about himself having been associated with L&T since 2016. “My first project with L&T was at the 500kV Tha Li – Khon Kaen 4 Transmission Line as Safety Engineer. My wife, Linjee, is a farmer and I have two children, Aphiwat and Sarawut, my younger one,” he says with a smile. “I jog early in the morning and read before going to sleep and I cherish that moment when I was nominated for the safety award for the Tha Li – Khon Kaen 4 project,” signing off with a laugh.
M Shanmugam,
Engineer – Systems (PT&D IC)
That he is a fitness freak who regularly hits the gym and has already participated in more than seven marathons has held M Shanmugam in very good stead as he has played a key role to ensure that it has been business as usual at PT&D IC during the lockdown. With the demand rapidly rising for systems to be shifted to various homes, Shanmugam became a ‘go to’ man or rather a ‘come home’ man as he explains, “I had to personally travel to the houses of several of our employees to install the system and provide instructions for usage. It was a safety risk, but I followed all the precautionary measures issued by the company and the government and encouraged our people to do the same,” he says. Working with PT&D IC’s ISD Department at the Chennai HQ, Shanmugam is primarily responsible for resolving user sign-in issues in ZScaler (Autodesk Product/File Server). “I do software licence updates, software installations and troubleshooting (Skype/ Outlook/Teams, etc.),” he explains outlining his responsibilities.
“My biggest challenge was to provide IT assets (more than 160) and services to those who did not have laptops to Work From Home,” he shares. “I also faced challenges to connect user systems through remote access because of low network bandwidth and public connection. Troubleshooting becomes very difficult without such access,” he says with a long face but brightens up immediately. “Despite all these challenges, I ensured that desktops and laptops were available so that business was never impacted due to the non-availability of a system.” Growing in confidence, he adds, “I was in office ever since the lockdown began arranging for IT assets, maintaining records/logs for tracking them and often working late into the nights but I must say that I received full support from my seniors and team members and even the admin team came forward to arrange transport for me during those tough days.”
Apart from being a fitness freak, Shanmugam enjoys swimming, playing cricket and quips, “Rajnikant movies make my day!” He nods, “yes, I do get time for my hobbies but this lockdown has played spoilsport.” Hailing from Dindigul, (he is quick to point out that it is famous for its special biryani), Shanmugam’s better half is Banumathi B, a homemaker, and shares that he had to troubleshoot at home too. “They were very apprehensive of my going out risking my life, but I explained the need and the criticality of my profile and they were appeased, at least to a certain extent,” he smiles.
“The organisation stands strong amid such a crisis which is a big relief for us enablers,” he signs off, very much in awe of the company he is a part of.
Moni Rajan N,
Assistant Construction Manager, Electrical, PT&D IC
The transition from a ‘Dessert Warrior’ to a ‘Corona Warrior’ is an unexpected shift for Moni Rajan N, Assistant Construction Manager (Electrical) at the 50MW/70MWp CSE Solar Power Plant Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu, but then he has taken the tough times on course, helped people to stay positive and fight the battle together as a team.
As a solar project professional, Moni Rajan, has had enterprising stints across some of the most challenging terrains in India. “We end up in vast stretches of barren land often in desert like conditions and then put together a defining solar infrastructure that transforms people’s lives in remote regions. And every time we do this, the feeling is great,” shares Moni Rajan.
However, the current role is a little different, he highlights. “As the pandemic evolved, the fear factor was big; with the workmen it was more of panic. Bringing the workmen back to a normal state of mind was perhaps the biggest challenge. A lot of pep talks especially during the early days helped but then it was not only plain talking, we had to walk the talk and that called for lining up a series of initiatives.”
Moni Rajan was quick to establish a comfort zone for the workmen in the camp which had all essentials, “And this initiative brought about a change in the attitude of workmen,” A step further in the right direction convinced them of our good intentions, he mentions. “We coordinated with the Village Administrative Officer, Thashildar and the local police station to ensure that the precautions taken at site were in line with the MHA and State Government guidelines.”
Implementing the SOPs showed how meticulously L&T goes about ensuring the wellbeing of workmen, shares Moni Rajan. “A daily attendance register was maintained at the camp to avoid any infiltration of workmen, while social distancing was practised with timely demonstrations along with awareness sessions on do’s and don’ts.” Moni Rajan acknowledges that the seniors at site steered the course while sharing insights on how to fight this battle as team.
For Moni Rajan, home front is a short travel from site with his family based at Nagercoil. However, taking up the larger cause of ensuring the wellbeing of workmen was important, he cites, “Initially, when my wife, Rajalekshmi and my daughter, Sai Lekshmitha came to know about my role at site, they were afraid and requested me not to take up the responsibility. But when I explained the cause of helping the site workmen as they too have their families, they agreed and urged me to lead the initiative with courage.” Today, the trust we have gained among workmen says a lot, he sums up.
Harish Kumar Singh,
Assistant Manager – IR (PT&D)
Posted at the 400/220/33kv GIS Substation project for HPPTCL at the town of Lahal in Himachal Pradesh, Harish Singh’s challenge is that his worksite is remote, perched some 1,650 m above sea level and difficult to access even at the best of times. “There are two routes to reach our site,” explains Harish, “one via Kangra Airport Gaggal and the other via Pathankot but both are very challenging for movement and the narrow roads make arranging logistics very difficult. These days it is even more difficult with the lockdown.” In addition to logistics planning, Harish and his team have also a whole set of new responsibilities to keep their workmen motivated and at site, to regularly arrange for their rations, provisions and medicines and following all the SOPs.
Harish has been with L&T since 2009, having joined as IR – Admin Supervisor and has been previously associated with three projects prior to his present posting at Lahal starting with the DTL underground cable laying in New Delhi, the TSPL Project in Bhatinda, Punjab and the DMRC Phase –III, Project, New Delhi.
Being remotely located, arranging for curfew passes for the site vehicle was critical for the movement of both people and provisions that the team managed to arrange for them. Flagging off a major triumph, Harish shares, “We registered 81 new workmen under the BOCW during these days of COVID-19 without their 90 days service period completion, for them to receive all the reimbursements introduced by the local authorities. In fact, 140 workmen received INR 1,000 per month under BOCW, HP while another 45 migrant workmen received INR 2,000 from the block development office at Bharmour, Chamba, HP which made them very happy,” he says with a mix of satisfaction and relief.
“All our seniors were continuously in touch with the site and several Zoom and MS Team calls were organized by HR & the Clusters,” he says. “The BU Head, Segment Head, Cluster Head, Segment Accounts Head and HR connected with us almost every day and various nice measures were taken by HR & Accts Admin to support our work to boost the morale of the staff working in a tribal location, far away from their families. We are all connected through two WhatsApp groups for immediate information transfers. The Webinar and learning sessions arranged were also very motivating.”
Hailing from Pithoragarh in Uttarakhand, Harish’s life partner is Meenakshi, a homemaker and they are blessed with a son, Nimesh. “His birth was my life’s best moment,” he gushes, adding that his hobbies are to know more about new places, “though in these difficult times, I find online platforms like YouTube the best to learn and explore,” he smiles.
Prakash Choudhary,
Senior Engineer (PT&D IC)
A tryst with nature is how Prakash Choudhary, Senior Engineer, at Kushma-New Butwal transmission line project in Nepal defines his first project in L&T. “I came here as a GET in 2018 and over the last two years it has been a blissful debut as our 90 Km alignment runs through some of the most picturesque surroundings and for a youngster like me scaling heights is inspiring.”
Of course, there is also a flipside to all situations and here it is the remoteness of the work fronts, “We have to travel at least 50 Km from our work fronts for even minor procurements. This has made us doubly careful to go through a lot of detailing before taking up work fronts ensuring that all essentials are lined up.”
With the pandemic crisis evolving, Prakash Choudhary’s bliss moments become larger as he has started donning the mantle of a caretaker for the workmen. “For some of us who mostly interacted from the work point of view, this was an entirely different situation as we went about reinforcing the workmen that they were in safe hands and need not panic.” He acknowledges, “there were lots of learnings especially from the senior members of the team. The essence of meaningful communication, on how to boost the morale of the workmen, ensure a sense of calmness with focus while adhering to the safety measures through a collective approach are invaluable insights.”
An interesting point that Prakash highlights is about making workmen understand social distancing. “We had to illustrate on how the gap had to be maintained, which initially was a little odd to them but with our regular do’s and don’ts and awareness training on how to stay safe and prevent the spread of the virus, the norms are becoming a regular at the camps.”
On the home front, Prakash has much to share with his family members based in Rajasthan on his role at site, L&T’s caring initiatives for the workmen and in return they are also assured, “I’m in safe hands and they urge me to continue the good work of ensuring the safety of workmen at site.”
V Vignesh Kumar,
Furnace Operator (PT&D IC)
Even as the world battles COVID-19, V Vigneshkumar at PT&D IC’s TLT Factory at Kanchipuram, near Chennai, has his focus trained on his personal battle to keep the furnace operating without interruption during the lockdown. Being his first assignment with L&T is also pushing him to give off his best. “Our operations at TLT involves the galvanizing of zinc parts for which the LPG furnace has to run 24×7,” explains Vignesh. “We keep melted Zinc in a molten state to minimize the loss due to solidification and our endeavour is to minimise the consumption of LPG to keep the Zinc in molten state. If we were to shut off the furnace, the Zinc would have to be taken out and re-melted on resumption that will entail loss of time and use up a lot of LPG fuel. Therefore, my responsibility was to continuously monitor the furnace, ensure its uninterrupted operation, ensure uninterrupted power supply to the furnace and switching over to DG in case of a power cut and safeguard company property during the lockdown.”
All his efforts were towards achieving these objectives. “We made the security and maintenance staff aware of the importance of social distancing and use of PPEs not only in the galvanizing section but everywhere else as well,” he informs, “and helped the maintenance and Admin teams to sanitize the work place.” Back to his favourite topic, Vignesh says, “we conducted preventive maintenance of the furnace during the lockdown, kept the LPG consumption to a bare minimum and prepared SOPs to arrest any LPG leak or fire.” Clearly, Vignesh is married to his job as he is yet single and says that his best moment till date has been joining L&T as a Furnace Engineer. “During my free time, I like to do the gym, play cricket and listen to music,” he shares. “Yes, my family was initially concerned about my health and safety but later they realized my contribution and have supported me mentally.”
“All my seniors have also given me great mental support to stay at the factory for 45 days day and night to ensure continuous furnace operation,” Vignesh acknowledges. “L&T is making India proud and taking the country to new heights. I am proud to be a part of this organization and happy to contribute to India’s growth through L&T,” he signs of in some style.
Mohammad Kamar Khan,
Assistant Officer – Stores (PT&D IC)
For Mohammad Kamar Khan, the lockdown brought new responsibilities to keep his Stores safe at the UPD – Saubhagya RE Works project at Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh. “I had to ensure that the 3M – Men, Material and Machinery – were safe during the lockdown,” he declares. “My first consideration was the safety of our people, then security of materials at site and those with the subcontractor and finally to bring all the machinery into my custody for safekeeping. For this, all the subcontractors were individually contacted, and their stock of material noted and cross verified. The materials at the store yard was already in my control and along with the accounts & admin departments & security were regularly monitored by Video cam in the mobile and at office thrice a day.”
Another important consideration for the project team was to be prepared to resume operations the moment the lockdown was relaxed. “For this, we continuously motivated and boosted the morale of all our stakeholders to remove the fear of the virus and keep the staff and workmen in a frame of mind that it was safe to return to work,” explains Kamar and adds that ‘thanks to a number of strong steps taken by our project team, it was thrilling to restart work on 20th April.” At the same time, the team coordinated closely with the Client to obtain the necessary permission to restart work and procure passes for the authorized movement of staff and workmen.
“Digitalization was a part and parcel of our fight against COVID-19,” says Kamar. “Right from group discussions, to sharing of information, learning, and acquiring knowledge about the pandemic to monitoring all kinds of activities, digital solutions helped a lot. At the end of the day, it was great teamwork,” Kamar says emphatically. “There was perfect coordination between the seniors and the team members; responses to our requests were very quick whatever be the issue and the guidelines that we laid down and followed helped a lot.”
Kamar is from the small village of Mohammadi in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri district. His life partner, Nazma Khan, is a homemaker and they are blessed with two baby boys, Arham and Arkam. “The birth of my first born has been my most memorable moment. It also made me more responsible,” he smiles. “My family are proud of what I am doing,” Kamar shares with feeling, “they always encourage me to do more for the betterment of my staff and workmen. They have always stood by me and take the utmost care of me.” Kamar likes to play cricket, watch news and sports channels.
Sandeep Pahal,
Engineer, Electrical, (PT&D IC)
For Sandeep Pahal, Engineer (Electrical) at UPD BU’s Saubhagya RE Works across Gorakhpur and Deori, family is always his first connect and when he was given the onus of ensuring the wellbeing of workmen, the first thing he did was to share it with his family, “They were worried but my discussion gave them a lot of clarity on how I was going to carry out this initiative as safely as possible.” Another interesting facet that came up during the interaction was how people react to a crisis. “I understood their feelings and was able to see things from their point of view later during my pep talks with workmen at site.”
In a way, my agrarian background helped to motivate the workmen, mentions Sandeep, “It’s a simple approach of hope combined with good effort without much speculation on the future which is basically the approach of most of our farming community. The goodness is innate and when you speak to the workmen in such a tone, they begin to see you as an ‘Apna Admi’ which worked well for me in this crisis.”
Having come up the hard way, I’m the one, who always sees a silver streak in a cloud, remarks Sandeep, “As the workmen got to know the do’s and don’ts, the overall care from L&T, I also advised them to learn something, even pick up a book and read. Well, some of them did, there was this guy who showed interest, borrowed some books, and has continued to read. His enthusiasm rubbed on to others and we had many among the workmen group who started showing interest to know more about the pandemic, global updates, hygiene, etc.” When it comes to people management, especially handling workmen, adopting a creative approach always helps and Sandeep acknowledges his seniors at site for giving him the freedom to exercise.
Md. Irfan Alam,
Assistant EHS Officer (PT&D IC)
“People are very scared of this pandemic,” observes Assistant Officer – EHS, Md Irfan Alam who is presently working to replace electrical equipment at the Southern Area GOSPS (Saudi Aramco) project in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which is his second Saudi Aramco project – the first being to replace power supply systems at Marjan GOSPS. “This fear has been our biggest challenge at site,” he elaborates, “because people are unwilling to share workplaces with colleagues who have some cough or fever. Some employees do report and possibly refuse whether justified or not, while others just refuse to work. Apart from this, employees were unwilling to follow and adhere to the required hygiene practices like social distancing, frequent washing of hands, coughing into your elbow and such like without realizing that it is for their safety and all those working with them.”
“We took several initiatives both at the site and at the camps to fight COVID-19,” shares Irfan. “We conducted monitoring of temperature both at the site and camps, we enforced social distancing in all places, provided the mandatory PPEs to the entire workforce, conducted awareness training and put up posters with Do’s and Don’ts at site, in office, at the camps and even in the bus. In our buses, we posted awareness signs on each seat for people to practice distancing,” he points out. “We use WhatsApp groups to circulate authentic and updated information about the cases, symptoms, precautionary measures, advisories from the Ministry of Health, communication from the client and about LTSA requirements.”
Still single, Irfan hails from Gopalganj in Bihar and loves playing cricket, reading newspapers, and cooking during his free time. “My family appreciates my effort at home but keep asking me to take all precautions,” he says.
Irfan is extremely thankful to his seniors for their support in his efforts. “I have received immense support from all my seniors,” he says earnestly, “and thank my Project Manager and the senior management for providing all the PPEs, sanitizers and everything else to ensure a safe working environment.” He is also full of praise for his company and shares, “I am really proud of being a part of L&T that is always taking care of its staff and workmen even during these tough days of the pandemic!
Joseph G Bagalay,
Officer – EHS (PT&D IC)
Though hailing from the Philippines, Joseph G. Bagalay is very much at home amidst the sands of Saudi Arabia, already on to his third PT&D project for Larsen & Toubro Saudi Arabia LLC there. “My first project involved the construction of a 132 kV D/C OHTL between Al-Sulayil S/S 8787 to BSP S/S 9701 Wadi Al Dawasir followed by the construction of a 380 kV D/C OHTL between MHD BSP – TBH PP S/S (WOA) Portion 1. Presently, I am monitoring the safety activities for installing a reactor for Waad Al Shamaal – Arar 380 kV Interconnection again in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.” Over the past couple of months or so, Joseph is also busy fighting COVID-19.
Just like everyone else perhaps across the globe, Joseph and his colleagues are having to contend with a ‘new’ norm and reorient themselves to evolving new norms and methods to keep staff and workmen safe at site. “First, the government implemented a strict curfew or lockdown that put our staff and workmen under stress,” he explains, “with changes in work timings and difficulties in purchasing food at the stores. The other challenge was to convince the maintenance team for work permits even after maintaining regulatory requirements and obtaining the local government procedure in case of any infected cases.”
The team has been practicing strict social distancing, daily monitoring of body temperature of everyone, conducting awareness training, putting up informative posters, arranging isolation rooms, disinfecting, and fumigating all premises. “We have been conducting virtual training for the staff through various devices and gadgets,” he remarks and adds with sincerity, “all my team members have eagerly supported and encouraged me in every initiative that I have taken to fight COVID-19.”
Joseph’s family is his wife, Lowela Caday Bagalay, who apart from looking after his home manages “our small businesses of an internet café and a Sari-Sari store,” he shares proudly. Joseph and Lowela are blessed with three children – Josephel Mae, Carl Joseph and Cyrus Jowell. “I have so many memories but the one which stands out most in my mind, heart and soul is the memory of my late mother,” he shares with feeling.
In conclusion, Joseph is thankful to the management of L&T for their ready support during this time of crisis. “The words and wishes of support (of the management) are thoughtful and comforting and will continue to drive our plans and actions, remaining an image of real leadership in the eye of the employees during this crisis,” he signs off in gratitude.
S. Karthigeyan,
Manager, Accounts, (PT&D IC)
Being on familiar ground is always an advantage and for S. Karthigeyan, Manager, (Accounts), the 10 plus years of handling PT&D projects in the Middle East is his biggest strength. Currently in his present assignment at the 132/11 kV substation and its related 132 kV OHL for Kuwait Oil Company, Karthigeyan, initiated safe proceedings at site early on as the pandemic was emerging. “We had our first meeting sometime in February 2020, which helped us to prepare better in this fight.”
The Middle East Region never went for a complete lockdown and the challenge was operating in between, mentions Karthigeyan. “What kept us in good shape was to proactively take decisions based on the timely updates shared by the COVID Response Team at site. As the situation evolved, we scaled up safety initiatives through frequent inspections of workmen and subcontractor camps, sourced adequate quantities of PPEs and hygiene kits and ensured smooth arrangement and distribution of food packets to the workmen.”
Wherever possible, we connected remotely to minimise group meetings, indicates Karthigeyan, “WhatsApp was an effective platform through which we had the core group members sharing information, listing of employees daily temperature check details and also workmen details before commencing works. Further, on a weekly basis, we shared larger issues with the management and drew up an action plan for the forthcoming week.” This approach worked well for us and the client was supportive towards all our endeavours, adds Karthigeyan.
While seeing through the present phase is Karthigeyan’s priority, there are many memorable moments for him in his overseas assignment, “I was part of the team that successfully completed PT&D’s first project for Kuwait National Petroleum Company in 2019, a job that was acknowledged by top management as I had the additional onus of disbursing salaries for the Kuwait employees along with the Letter of Credit issuance.” Earlier to the KNPC stint, Karthigeyan was associated with Kharamma Substation projects, Qatar, one of the prestigious clients for L&T, where he moved from an executive to manager to shoulder larger responsibilities.
For Karthigeyan’s family comprising his wife Alamelu, daughter Akshaya and son Shyamsundar, based in Trichy, his hometown, connecting with him and getting to know about L&T’s safety measures gives a reassuring feeling, “Every time, I talk about how we are taking care of our workmen, fighting the battle collectively, it is a proud moment for them.”
Bittu Thomas,
Male Nurse (PT&D IC)
Bittu Thomas, at the Kahramaa Phase 13 Substation projects in Qatar, belongs to a family of healers as his wife, Jean Anna Joe, is also a nurse at the Hamad Medical Corporation. “One of our main challenges we faced after the outbreak of COVID-19 was to cool off panicked employees,” he shares, speaking about the situation at site. “We succeeded to an extent to control the situation by conducting frequent awareness training. There was also a sudden shortage of masks, gloves, hand sanitizers in the local market but our admin team worked hard to arrange and make available the necessary items in our sites without any break.”
True to his profession, Bittu mentions that a critical first step they took was to identify high risk employees (those above 40 years of age with conditions of diabetes, heart and lung disease, etc.) and adequate precautions were taken with the help of our EHS & Project teams. “We promoted good respiratory hygiene at the site through toolbox talks, posters, signages; we conducted periodic awareness training for staff & workmen, monitored daily temperature of everybody, provided hand washes to all workmen and staff at regular intervals to maintain hand hygiene and even prepared a COVID-19 awareness leaflet.” Up to date information is very important in these times of crisis and Bittu ensured to install the EHTERAZ app (developed by MOI, Qatar) to track the virus transmission chain. “We gathered information from the Qatar Ministry of Public Health website regarding all the updates & guidelines and attended online courses conducted by WHO on COVID-19.”
“My seniors and team members especially Country Head A Dhanapal, HR Head, Sachin Pandey, FA&A Head, Santhanakrishnan & EHS Head, Reece Chahal have been very co-operative and helped to implement our Emergency Response Plan,” shares Bittu. “They helped for the immediate purchase of the necessary PPE kits, equipment for health screening, cleaning materials, etc., helped by providing extra vigilance across the accommodation & site to ensure proper hygiene, waste management, preventive measures including daily disinfection of vehicles by third party agencies and provided digital platforms to organise team meetings.”
Previously, Bittu worked at the Kahramaa Phase 12 and Manateq Substation projects as an Occupational Health Nurse and is proud for being a part of L&T “that is still maintaining its employees even if the economic situation is unstable.” Bittu and his wife, Jean, are blessed with two children, son, Jayce and daughter, Levyna and holding them for the first time are some of Bittu’s best moments. “I like cricket and cooking,” he smiles and adds, “I still get time to cook but due to COVID-19 restrictions I am unable to play cricket,” he says with a laugh.
R Baranidharan,
Executive Systems (PT&D IC)
To maintain business as usual during the lockdown was the unwritten brief to all ISD professionals across the company and for R Baranidharan (Barani, for short), working in PT&D IC’s ISD department at HQ, it also entailed travelling to the houses of many employees across Chennai to get them connected and working. “I often had to deal with problems like police restrictions and location tracking to serve our users, and it was risky but I followed the precautionary measures issued by the company and the government and, at the end of the day, I was able to deliver on my commitments,” he smiles. “In most places, the main issues were connecting to the internet on desktops and the lack of knowledge about mobile tethering but I was able to cope with all the problems and guide all our users to ensure that they were functioning well. I also connected with all the stakeholders (admin, security, ISD) to smoothen the process of dispatch so that business continuity was maintained seamlessly,” he says with a lot of satisfaction.
After becoming a permanent employee of PT&D in 2011, Barani has been an ISD Coordinator at HQ since 2014 after earlier stints in the Mumbai and Ahmedabad clusters. “At present, my responsibilities include widely analysing and resolving EIP related issues, preparing the IT budget, procuring IT equipment, maintaining IT assets and MIS work,” he shares.
“COVID-19 has taught us a great lesson,” he says, “that even though we are maintaining social distancing, digital platforms are always keeping us together. In fact, we are using so many more apps to connect with each other like MS teams, Skype and social media platforms like Workplace and WhatsApp.” Barani has a word of praise for his team and thanks them for their help to succeed. “I received great support from my seniors, my teammates and admin during the pandemic situation who made themselves available 24 X 7 for approvals, arranging vehicles which made us feel that we were in a safe environment,” he says with feeling.
Barani comes from the village of Rayakottai, in Krishnagiri district. His life partner is Seetha, a homemaker and the love of their lives is little 13-month-old, Pugazh. “Every moment spent with family and friends are memorable moments,” he pronounces. His hobbies include visiting new places, hitting the gym, playing cricket, volleyball and listening to POP albums.
“In my six years at HQ, this is the second major calamity we have faced,” he says seriously. “The first was the floods of 2015 and now this pandemic. Our company came out of that successfully and I am sure will emerge from this crisis very well too by going the extra mile.”
