A PROFESSIONAL IN A PROFESSIONALLY MANAGED ORGANIZATION
S Kaliyan
Deputy General Manager (Civil), B&F IC
Having joined L&T in 1990 as a DET, S Kaliyan is presently at the BIAL T2 project after two recent stints with the Ford project, Chennai and thereafter at the Tech Mahindra project, both as Construction Head. Basis his long, three-decade long association with L&T, his assessment is that L&T is a professionally managed organization. In fact, his life’s most cherished moment is work related. “I developed and nurtured a team at the Tech Mahindra Project, Bengaluru, and successfully completed the project ahead of schedule despite facing lot of constraints,” he shares, proud of his achievement.
At the BIAL site, during the first wave of the pandemic, the challenge before him and his team was to pacify the agitated workmen who were frightened with the overall situation. “Our first task was to instil confidence in them so they could in turn convince their worried loved ones that it was safe to go to work,” he says. “The second challenge was to motivate the workmen to stay in their habitat and get back to work for us to achieve our milestones.”
The first few milestones post relaxation of the lockdown was most challenging due to the severe shortage of workmen. “Completing our finishing works and readiness of rooms were affected so we had workmen brought back on trains, coaches and direct buses to meet the project requirement.” Focus workgroups were formed from the available team who worked in roster and targeted specific areas based on project priority. At the same time, the team strove to maintain a high degree of hygiene at the workmen habitat to keep people safe.
“We identified potential areas where most of the workmen were located and sent our workmen cell representatives in person to those remote villages to convince their families to allow them to travel to our project site and our senior management immediately approved our proposal for tickets. They supported us too with valuable guidance and mentoring,” says a grateful Kaliyan.
The client, for their part, helped the team by agreeing to virtual factory inspections and most of the approvals were provided based on technical datasheets and other document evidence. Site walkdown reviews, physical & design meetings were all conducted on MS Teams.
Kaliyan hails from Srivilliputtur in the Tamil Nadu district of Virudunagar. His wife, Velvizhi M is a homemaker, and they are blessed with two daughters, Jayapriya K and Saumiyaa Sri K. He loves to listen to music as a pastime especially when commuting.
“MY SELF-BELIEF AND CONFIDENCE
HAVE GROWN THANKS TO L&T!”
Ganesh Kannan S
Senior Manager (Industrial Relations), B&F IC
“I joined L&T in May 2007 at the RIL Offshore Project, Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh and over these 14 years, I have realized that my self-belief and confidence have grown, and I have the ability to handle any and all situations,” says a proud Ganesh Kannan S, who is presently handling IR at the BIAL T2 project, which is his 8th with L&T. These are qualities that are most required by people learning how to face and overcome the pandemic-caused disruptions. GK, as he likes to refer to himself, has been deeply involved in developing and implementing mitigation measures to combat the virus, keep people at offices and site, safe and healthy for the project to progress.
Not surprisingly, his issues at site were labour shortage and no proper transportation available to bring them back. “As part of our strategy for workmen mobilisation, we booked train tickets or arranged direct buses from their native places,” he shares. “All new workmen were tested for COVID-19 on arrival and kept in specially arranged isolation wards during the quarantine period before engaging them for work.” The site also faced problems of low levels of enthusiasm and motivation among the staff and workmen and rising COVID cases.
Apart from strictly following the COVID-19 guidelines issued by the Government of Karnataka, GK ensured that the temperature of all staff, workmen & visitors was checked daily at the entry points and regularly sanitized the offices, accommodations & workmen camps. “We deployed an additional doctor and nurse to monitor the health of workmen and organized regular meetings with the subcontractors on how to tackle the situation,” he says. “A part of our team arranged for various vaccination camps through the Government of Karnataka and administered 7,255 doses for the workmen and staffs (inclusive of both the doses). I am delighted that all our workmen have recovered thanks to the healthy work environment we created for them,” shares a satisfied GK.
The project team mainly focussed on priority works as the resources were limited and gradually opened more fronts as the resources increased. “All our seniors were very co-operative and guided us to achieve our mobilisation targets on time,” he says thankfully, mentioning that the WISA App helped them greatly for workmen management.
Hailing from Pondicherry, GK’s life partner is Bathemavathy, a homemaker, and they are blessed with two daughters, Subikshaa and Nimisha. “I watch sports and news during my free time,” he smiles. Not surprisingly, his life’s most cherished moment is the birth of his first daughter.
MAKING THE BEST OF WHAT’S AVAILABLE
Problems are meant to be solved is Darshan Marathe’s approach as he and his colleagues at the L&T Infotech Project at Mahape, Navi Mumbai, gathered their strength to fight the adverse impact of the pandemic. He is at his 4th project with L&T after joining the ranks in 2011 starting with the One BKC project. “Remobilizing manpower was tough with the newly inducted workmen, mostly freshers, delivering less productivity. We had difficult organizing government permits as their offices were functioning only 10-20% and frequent changes in government guidelines were affecting our site operations.”
“Our top priority was for the project to take off and gain momentum,” he says, full of determination. “Utilizing all the internal and external networks, we arranged for statutory permits in record time that enabled us to start excavation, blasting and disposal at the earliest,” his sense of achievement is evident. “We trained our freshers on a war footing, forming teams to strategically balance the freshers and the experienced. At the same time, we extended every support to our subcontractors to mobilize the required strength.” The team arranged to transport the workmen from their native places, explained the concept of the bio bubble to them to stay safe and, as of date, have vaccinated all their workmen.
Mobilization was their primary focus which they planned and monitored daily. A team of 5 from the planning and execution teams was responsible for mobilizing resources. “We set up offsite facilities in a one acre of laydown area that was a catalyser for the good start to the project while another task force with representatives from P&M, accounts and the client concentrated on clearing statutory compliances for us to proceed with the works. We managed to complete all mobilisation activities on time that provided the desired take off for the project,” he smiles triumphantly.
Darshan is riding high on the faith his seniors have reposed in him and he describes his team as one of the reasons for their success. “My team of young and energetic engineers are always ready to go the extra mile and they are a perfect fit for this fast-paced project.”
Darshan’s native place is Nandurbar in Maharashtra. His better half, Pooja, is a homemaker, and the couple are blessed with two daughters, Bhoomi and Swara. “I love reading, music and long drives. My most memorable moment was when I met the love of my life,” he blushes.
Freedom of speech, expression and taking work-related decisions are what he finds unique at L&T.
CONFIDENT TO FACE ANY CHALLENGE
Hemant Kumar Jaluka is only at his third project with L&T at the Bangalore International Airport Terminal-2 (Phase-1) project after earlier assignments at the Reliance Twin Tower (Ghansoli, Navi Mumbai) and Godrej-II Commercial (Vikhroli, Mumbai) projects but he has gained the confidence to face any challenge. “The level of confidence that a person has while working in L&T is something which makes you believe that any and every situation is manageable and there is nothing that a L&T-ite cannot do,” he declares proudly. Very unsurprisingly, his life’s most cherished moment thus far was when he received his first paycheque from L&T. “I was also overjoyed with the appreciation I received for the before time completion of the final works in the Twin Tower project,” he shares, delightedly.
On resumption of operations at the BIAL site after the lockdowns, Hemant and his colleagues had to face multiple challenges of labour shortage with no proper transportation system operational, the task of protecting their high valued materials during the monsoon and ensuring delivery of essential material for continuation of works. “Perhaps, the toughest hurdle was the low level of enthusiasm and motivation in both staff and workmen,” he sighs.
“Yet, as true L&T-ites, we rose to the challenges and as part of our strategy, we decided to target and prioritize on those milestones which were of utmost importance to minimize idling of available resources.” This was driven by the fact that their resources were, in any case, limited. “However, we were able to increase our resources gradually and accordingly commenced works on multiple fronts,” he points out. Procube came in handy for them to monitor project progress while WISA helped with workmen onboarding.
Considering the enormity of their challenges, the team is thankful that they were supported in their efforts by both the client, BIAL, who intervened to get Government clearances for site operations and, their subcontractors, who mobilized workmen, strictly following all the COVID guidelines. For their part, the team set up quarantine facilities at the site premises for workmen, arranged for rations and other essentials and gave the workmen regular motivational talks to reduce their stress. “All the seniors were extremely cooperative and extended their complete support to mobilize workmen,” says Hemant. “We even coordinated with and received support from other clusters and sites,” he says with a smile.
From Ranchi in Jharkhand, Hemant is still single and, for the moment, only married to his job, for although his hobbies are binge watching of web series and singing, he hardly finds the time to follow them.
Ever since he joined L&T 2012, G Parameswar has worked on four consecutive ‘Prestige’ residential projects starting with the Prestige Bella Vista in Chennai. “That project was very special for me as I was the first person as a trainee to complete the first tower of the project and I received the best performer award,” he shares excitedly. His next project was the Prestige Lakeside Habitat, followed by Prestige Leela Residencies and presently, he is at the Prestige Jindal City project in Bengaluru.
After the lockdowns, although struck by the labour exodus, Parameswar and his team did not lose hope but worked towards bringing their workforce back and succeeded. “Our task then was to train the new workmen as per our site requirement to meet our productivity levels and catch up with the backlog to meet our targets by following all the COVID rules strictly.” At the same time, creating work fronts in all main activities was critical so Parameswar concentrated on completing the footings and columns, ensuring proper movement of material. “To focus on the critical activities, we divided the project into zones for pours to achieve our targets,” he says. Month wise scheduling was prepared as per MCP, that was broken down into day wise micro schedules.
“My additional responsibility was to monitor progress, tracking it daily against the micro activity schedule,” he explains his approach. “Material movement was planned as per the proper pour plan to achieve targets without wastages. To keep our people safe from infections, we divided our workmen into teams for all activities separately.” He is thankful to the Client for clearing all their bills and checklists digitally and to the vendors and workmen for following all the necessary COVID protocols. The site uses the digital store app to issue material, the Conquer App for quality checks, the Safety App, Procube for tracking progress and MS Teams for contactless meetings.
Parmeswar’s native place is Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. He is married to Asha, who works in the media as a reporter, and they are blessed with a daughter, Shaavni, who’s first sight has been his life’s most memorable moment. “I like to play table tennis and yes,” he nods, “I do find time to play it in our site recreation room during my free time.”
About his association with L&T, he says, “L&T is the only Indian MNC that is constantly re-inventing itself to make the best possible systems and give opportunities for innovative thinking to achieve engineering excellence.”
Planning Manager, Rohit Peddinti, at the IIT Hyderabad campus development project, has a refreshing approach to work and life. “I always strive for excellence, never settling for anything mediocre, and that is a philosophy that I want to imbibe in my life too,” he says with a serious look. It is an approach that has certainly stood him in good stead at two of his earlier projects with L&T, the ITC Infopark Redevelopment Phase 1 and the WIPRO-Kodathi projects, both out of Bengaluru, and then again at his present assignment.
While the first wave of the pandemic caught most people off-guard and they were reactive, the team was much etter prepared and ready to weather the second wave. The overwhelming issue of the project was that of labour retention to move the project forward. “It was natural for the workmen to leave after almost 6 weeks of the first lockdown but after the second wave, they were leaving for the fear of a third lockdown,” Rohit points out. “Our taskforce, strengthened with the help of L&T’s HR-W Cell, started calling the vendor supervisors and motivating them every evening though our primary focus was labour retention.” The team’s priority was to deploy all the necessary resources for the MSME, BTBM and Infra Works that were on the verge of being handed over. “We managed to retain about 750 workmen by end of May-2021 when the second wave was at its peak.”
Daily review meetings were focused on resource availability for the priority buildings. “We discussed all possible avenues to accelerate works across all work zones and made monthly invoicing plans in line with the available resources, monitoring them daily to understand and monitor critical items which could boost invoicing,” says Rohit the planner. “We even tried to change the billing cycle to quicken the process of billing and ensure regular cash flow to all our vendors.”
Rohit says that theirs was the first site to utilize the LT-Workmen Connect application and successfully onboarded 3 new vendors who are still intact. “Post COVID, all workmen were onboarded using the WISA application with their records and attendance digitally recorded.” He is quick to acknowledge the support and guidance of his project leadership in their success.
Hailing from Jamshedpur in Jharkhand, Rohit’s life partner is Pallavi, who is studying M. Phil in Clinical Psychology at NIMHANS, Bengaluru, and is also a practising Counselling Psychologist. “I follow cricket, love statistics and computational mathematics with a Green Belt in Lean Six Sigma, am bit of a foodie and love the idea of making and eating food,” he laughs. He recalls with relish his convocation at IIT Madras on clearing his Master’s and his wedding day – 24th December.
COMBATTING THE PANDEMIC TO ENSURE SAFETY FOR ALL
Sai Sunder Hari Venkataraman
Assistant Officer (Admin), B&F IC
COVID-19 dominates the conversation with Sai Sunder Hari Venkataraman. Understandable, for most of the time he has been at the BIAL T2 project (since March 2019), he and his team have been busy evolving strategies to keep people safe at the project, and at the same, replenish their numbers of workmen, to replace those who had left in fear. “Focusing on re-mobilisation, we sent our representatives across the country to labour intensive areas like Chhattisgarh, Orissa, West Bengal and Bihar to convince the workmen to return,” he says. “With only limited manpower at site, the site leadership had to judiciously deploy workmen in specific areas and concentrate on works which would create substantial work fronts for the next lot to arrive.”
At site, the workmen were split into focussed working groups spread across the entire project area, strictly following the SOPs issued by the Government. “We monitored project progress using Procube and workmen deployment through the WISA platform,” he mentions about the digital solutions in use at site. “WISA, for example, was very useful to arrive at the workmen demographics that helped us to identify the areas where most of them were located. Without this information readily available, remobilization would not have been possible,” Sai remarks with a serious look.
Subsequent, to the pandemic, the Employer has set up a dedicated task force team. “Right from its inception, I have been involved as an L&T representative to ensure that the SOPs and guidelines issued by the Govt are percolated to the workmen level,” he shares. “Being a part of the BIAL-COVID-19 WAR Group has helped me develop my rapport with the local police, hospitals, health officials etc. that came in very handy when we had to vaccinate 7,255 workmen and staff at site, with both doses.” Sai is thankful for the leadership and guidance of the site top management, his reporting head and mentor, Sridhar Narayanan, Project Director, J K Shivaraj and Deputy Project Director, Maheshwarappa to achieve so much.
Hailing from Chennai, Sai, who describes himself as an ‘eligible bachelor,’ loves photography, taking long drives and listening to Bob Marley. About experiences he has a lot to share. “Professionally, I am indebted to Mr. GR Ranganath (ex-CE of L&T Oman) for sculpting and chiselling my skills, developing my knowledge, broadening my thinking and elevating me as his Executive and Technical Assistant. Personally, I cherish the memory of taking my grandmother and mother on their maiden flight.” He smiles at the memory.
“Working with L&T is a pride,” he says, having joined as Admin Assistant in December 2011 and BIAL is his 4th posting.
CELEBRATING TEAMWORK
Ajay Prakash M K
Engineer (Civil), B&F IC
“Great things in construction are never achieved by one person, they are achieved by a team led by a strong leader and that is the success of the Prestige Jindal City project,” states Ajay Prakash M K, obviously delighted with his assignment. “We have a strong leader in our Project Director, K Ravichandran, and my construction manager fulfils all the resource requirements in time to achieve our day-to-day targets.” Ajay’s sense of achievement stems also from his pride of being a part of Brand L&T. “L&T is doing prestigious projects, the largest, longest, and I am proud to be a part of this organization,” he avers.
At his second project after an earlier stint at the Prestige Lakeside Habitat project also in Bengaluru, Ajay plays the role of Reinforcement Engineer. “Workmen are the strength of an organization,” he points out, “and the disruption after the first wave of the pandemic was quite severe but we took remobilization as our core challenge and with great effort were able to accomplish our mission in the stipulated time.” He mentions the special attention they are paying to maintain hygiene at both the site and labour camp.
“Our first milestone was to complete the non-tower area structures of the project, and we have completed 120,000 Sqm within seven months, and at the same time, completed nine 28-30 storied towers out of the total 15 towers,” he shares, pleased with their success, which he elaborates was primarily due to close monitoring of each activity with the help of digital solutions like Procube, the Safety App, the Conquer App, Digital Stores and WISA that are helping the team to identify and address backlogs. “We are constantly on the lookout at to where we can reduce time to complete activities. In a typical tower, we were instructed to tie and keep the preceding wall reinforcements at 1 m height before concreting the previous floor that has resulted in better progress, quality, and safety. This success attracts appreciation from the client which is a great support for the project,” he smiles.
He mentions the adoption of an automation tool for bar bending and schedule preparation that are enabling them to use more steel offcuts to control reinforcement wastages.
Ajay hails from Calicut in Kerala and is still single with his family comprising his parents and his two siblings. “My hobbies are playing cricket, carrom, drawing, watching films, and I find time over weekends to enjoy them,” he laughs adding that the most memorable moment in his life was when he became a part of L&T.
THE NEED TO ACT QUICKLY AND DECISIVELY
A Leo Stalin
Assistant Officer (Supervisor), B&F IC
The pandemic-induced disruptions have impacted people and departments differently throwing up new challenges that require quick, out-of-the-box thinking. For A Leo Stalin at his IIT Hyderabad, Phase 2 project, the issues were of price escalations and vendor non-performance that were resulting in the stagnation of material supply. “On one hand, we had to immediately re-negotiate and ensure that the company got the best rates although the vendors were very determined to hike their prices,” shares Leo. “At the same time, we had to look for alternatives and have a standby vendor list to procure material if our negotiations were not to our benefit.” Leo and his colleagues also had to think on their feet to assess future requirements and plan for them with the concerned In-charges.
Fortunately, Leo had prior experience of having handled similar situations though not in the scale that he was facing here. Previously, he had been Store Assistant at the BNRI Housing Project, Kolkata, IR Assistant at the SCB Medical College project, Cuttack, after which he handled Accounts & Admin at both the Tata Housing Project, Kolkata and the GMCH Madhepura project, Patna.
“We got cracking right away,” says Leo, with an enthusiastic smile. “From the vendors side, we looked at quick onboarding and quicker empanelment of vendors. We collected the requirements from across work zones and collated them. Once we received the material, it was carefully stacked and then distributed as per priority.
We had daily review meetings that helped us to stay on top of things.” Leo seems to have all his bases covered.
At the same time, Leo coordinated with his team to keep the associates safe with daily sanitation, regular temperature checks, creating hand sanitizing zero contact stations and maintaining the necessary PPEs apart from the usual masks, hand sanitizers, hand wash, PPE and testing kits. Obviously, Leo was successful due to the support and cooperation he has been constantly receiving from his Project Director, H.S.P Shukla, Accounts & Admin Head, Nechikat Krishna Kumar and Store In-Charge, T Angappan. “Without their help and support we would not have achieved as much as we have,” says Leo gratefully.
Hailing from Ariyanellure in Dindigul, Tamil Nadu, Leo is married to Dhivya Anandhi, who is a homemaker. “My pastime hobbies are chess and badminton,” he smiles.
“My life’s most memorable day was July 14th, 2014, when I joined L&T which I call my gateway to success,” he shares with a big grin, and says he is most impressed by the transparency of systems that he experiences at L&T.
TROUBLESHOOTING TO MAINTAIN PROJECT PROGRESS
K Ravi Kiran
Supervisor (Admin), B&F IC
The role of the support staff at project sites has become hugely more important as they have the tough task of retaining workmen during these days of the pandemic for sites to maintain progress. K Ravi Kiran’s main responsibility at his AIIMS, Guntur project is to retain the 1,300 workmen at site. “We are constructing a hospital and an educational institution and at peak we had about 2,500 workmen,” he explains. “However, presently, we are down to only 1,300 and we are doing whatever it takes to keep them at site, healthy, safe and in the right mood to work by assuring and motivating them that all arrangements have been made at site for them to work safely.”
The team has tied up with Manipal and NRI hospitals for immediate and best treatment at any time for the workmen. “A Government Medical Officer deployed by us examines our workmen regularly and by providing good accommodation, we have convinced them that we are there for them.” It is also Ravi’s responsibility to sanitize the workmen camp daily and keep the premises clean. “100% of our workmen have been vaccinated which is another reason why they have remained safe and healthy at site,” he smiles at this triumph.
While Ravi and his team ensure that there is no more labour drain from the site, the rest of the project team are focussed on monitoring progress and achieving project milestones, in accordance with the plan and schedule. “We constantly co-ordinate with our teammates to provide any support them may require to reduce the backlog,” he says seriously.
Ravi is obviously pleased with his efforts because, as he shares, “My seniors have given me a free hand to do whatever is required to solve issues at both the site and the workmen camp. My team members have supported me a lot without any time restrictions. They come to site whenever there is a work,” he shares, praising their commitment.
On his personal front, Ravi’s native place is Pileru, in the Chittoor District of Andhra Pradesh, located some 60 km from the temple town of Tirupathi. Still single, he says, his hobbies are, “watching news and movies though I rarely find the time to follow them,” he grimaces.
“My work at my first site, the APTIDCO, Nuzvid project, has been my best working experience till date and being a part of L&T, my job role makes me proud that I have to take care of every workman at our site,” he concludes on a high.