A proud L&T-ite, who always dreamt of working with L&T, V Gavaskar enjoys the collaborative environment and working with talented and supportive colleagues. “I love the autonomy and trust I receive from my superiors that empowers me to own my projects, find innovative solutions to problems and see the direct results of my efforts,” he enthuses. He appreciates his work-life balance that allows him to pursue his passions outside of work which is an interest in social activities like planting trees, renovating water bodies, and adopting Government schools, that he manages over weekends. “To create social awareness in villages, I formed a team called ‘ARAM SEI THAMIZHA’ and planted more than 8,000 trees, renovated 1 lake and 3 ponds, adopted, and raised the standards of 4 Government schools, equal to that of private schools,” he shares meaningfully.

He began his innings with L&T in 2010 as ISD In-charge of the Chennai Metro Rail Project. Apart from ISD, presently he handles VISA processing, MEP – S/C billing and workmen mobilization at the Quality Award-winning Teaching Hospital Project in Mauritius. “Being an IT person, adopting the civil and MEP portfolio has been challenging,” he says grimly, “but our site team members and seniors have extended their support to help me understand the process to find appropriate workmen with the required technical skills.”

Giving an insight into his work, Gavaskar says that he screens workmen online by verifying their experience certificate, medical fitness, and technical skills to source quality workmen. “My good relations with the government officials have helped us in VISA processing on a priority basis to bring in workmen on an urgent basis many times as per project requirements.” He leads the admin role to implement the Quality Conquer App and other digital systems at the site to enable roles as per staff responsibility and the client as well. “We track dashboards for timely addressing and closing NCRs and observations, and QMS Scoring Assessment Report extracted from the dashboard for site/section engineer score and best score that is awarded monthly,” he adds.

A native of Dusi Village near Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu, Gavaskar is married to Rekha, a homemaker, and they are blessed with two children, Varshitha and Kriti Riya. “Apart from my social activities, I love photography and cricket,” hardly surprising with a name like his!

In conclusion, he says, “Most of the IT and Digital implementations in my project were pilot tested and implemented and the trust and confidence I have built in L&T over the past 14 years is memorable.”

“Operating the equipment safely is our prime goal to achieve Mission Zero Harm,” says Balaji with all seriousness but is quick to add that they face several challenges including continuous rain & frequent tropical storms. The team has installed Anemometers on cranes to work safely in such inclement conditions. “Maintaining electrical components in this humid weather condition calls for a lot of precautionary maintenance works to avoid breakdowns,” he points out.

Balaji is impressed with the top management for their support in obtaining approvals and the active engagement of the Project Director, Tasin Mohamed, to monitor project progress. “We conduct weekly meetings to plan for upcoming activities and daily meetings to monitor daily progress and resolve day-to-day issues. All our team members are experienced in their respective areas and extremely supportive,” he nods in appreciation.

A native of Trichy, Tamil Nadu, Balaji’s better half is Hemalatha, a homemaker, and their family is complete with their son, Kasthuri Rengan and daughter, Mahalakshmi. He relaxes listening to music and reading books. A memorable moment for Balaji was to meet his wife and child at Mauritius airport after a long gap and his wife flying for the first time in her life.

He is particularly gung-ho about a quality initiative with the construction workers. “I believe that workers play a key role in achieving quality,” he says with due seriousness, “and although the local Mauritian workers have a different kind of work culture, I ensure that they and our Indian workers are well aligned to provide quality workmanship by adopting best practices. I played this vital role that won appreciation from both our client and my superiors.” He is visibly proud of his contribution.

While the tropical climate and frequent storms often disrupt construction progress, the shortage of skilled workers are another major issue. “We need to train both the local workers and those of other nationalities like Africans, Chinese, Bangladeshis, and workers from Madagascar about L&T’s systems and the CWP we follow,” he says with a shake of his head. “In fact, we have given more than 15,000 manhours of training to improve their skill levels to suit our requirements for the desired outputs.” Workers are screened online by skill and categories before they are issued work permits.

Gowrisankar proudly flags off achieving more than 1,00,000 sqm hand mix cement mortar plastering externally and internally without quality snags under his supervision. “Since the client did not want putty application on the walls, it was our responsibility to deliver a smooth surface that is very difficult in hand mix plastering, but we succeeded and the client is delighted with our finish quality,” he looks over the moon.

He loves the two-way communication at L&T between management and staff. “I enjoy the freedom to share my thoughts and never feel omitted from the Organisation structure. L&T is more than a workplace to me, it is like my family I’m super proud of my family.” His immediate family is his wife, Vijaya, a homemaker, and his two lovely daughters, Hamsini and Akshara, his mother, Nagamani, and his brother & wife, Bhadra & Laxmi. Spending quality time with them gives him greatest joy.

There is happiness on his home front too, for Naren and his wife, Sushmitha, are expecting their first baby very soon. Best wishes to the wonderful couple! A native of Veeramangudi, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, Naren shares about his extended family. “My father’s name is Raguvel and my mother, Geetha, is a homemaker. I have a sister, Keerthika Ezhilasran and a brother, Pragadeeshwaran and what I love best is to spend time with my family,” he signs off happily.

A trainee from CSTI Panvel (Mumbai), Shri Krushna Satarkar is truly living his dream with L&T. “After my 3-month training, I was selected for a year’s on-the-job training at the Hyderabad International Airport Limited and AIIMS, Guntur projects,” he begins his story. In fact, he was promoted to Technician at the AIIMS Project. “As a result of my hard work and dedication, I excelled and after completing my training I was chosen to work at the Teaching Hospital Project in Mauritius, where I am responsible for supervising finishing activities.” Krushna’s plate is full executing tasks such as brickwork, plastering, false ceiling, granite/tiles, painting, and waterproofing installations. “It is our responsibility to ensure that the project is completed to the highest standards,” he says for good measure and by winning L&T Construction’s Quality Award 2023, the project team is certainly on the right track.

Sharing his onsite activities, Krushna informs that one of his main tasks is to inspect the site daily to ensure that everything is in order and to identify any potential trouble areas before they become major problems. “I conduct weekly workmen trainings, motivate and inspire them to achieve the best quality of works,” he says with the energy of a newcomer. In addition, he is involved in ensuring timely closure of all quality observations, identifying areas of improvement, and taking prompt corrective actions, like working overtime to complete tasks that are getting delayed to meet their goals. “It is also tough to handle documents, manage our immediate superiors, and ensure that the workmen complete their work properly, especially during peak hours,” he observes with a worried expression.