A MAN OF ‘PRESTIGE’
S. Antony Francis
Construction Manager (Civil), B&F IC
“I have gone to great lengths to ensure that every structural aspect of the towers, from its structure to the surrounding non-tower areas, receives utmost attention and care,” declares S. Antony Francis, standing amidst the towering Prestige Finsbury Park residential towers that reflect the team’s collective dedication, expertise, and commitment. “Our success is because we have effectively managed our resources, optimizing every opportunity to enhance productivity right from the basement to the terrace,” he emphasizes.
A seasoned Construction Manager, Antony was tested during the time of the pandemic when workmen mobilization was a huge problem. “With strategic planning and rigorous negotiations, we managed to assemble a proficient team by offering marketcompetitive rates that matched nearby projects,” he points out wisely, “striking a balance between attracting skilled and unskilled labour, always staying within our project budget.”
One of Antony’s defining moments in the project was establishing seamless coordination among all service teams and efficiently managing his own team. “Together, we tackled the complex task of completing not only the towers but also the non-tower areas and basements, maintaining quality and safety,” he says. This dedication paid off, for their work was not only approved by the internal quality team but also met the Client’s high expectations. He attributes digitalization as the driving force behind the project’s success with the digital tools facilitating efficient safety monitoring, quality control, and checklist submissions. “Digital tools also help us manage pour cards, provide real-time progress updates, optimize workmen and machinery productivity, and ultimately enhance the project’s overall efficiency and effectiveness.”
A through & through ‘Prestige’ man, Antony joined L&T at the Prestige Bella Vista project in Chennai and has also worked at the Prestige Sunrise Park & Prestige Song of the South, and now as the Building In-charge for Prestige Finsbury Park project, all in Bengaluru. At the Prestige Song of South, he recalls achieving timely completion of the towers with optimal costs, without the assistance of tower cranes showing the team’s ingenuity and commitment to excellence.
Hailing from Sethukkuvaithan, in Tamil Nadu’s Tuticorin district, Antony is married to A. Josephine Sagaya Rani, a homemaker. They are blessed with a son, A. George Jerrish. His hobbies include playing cricket, watching movies, and reading.
Antony takes immense pride working for L&T and is grateful for the abundant growth opportunities given to him. “I am evolving and growing along with my company,” he says with a bright smile.
MAKING A CAREER OF BUILDING HOMES
Balamurugan Dhandapani
Construction Manager (Civil), B&F IC
“We handed over nearly 400 flats out of 519 for PDI without any comments from the customer at the Prestige Finsbury Park Project,” declares Balamurugan Dhandapani proudly, but then it is not very surprising coming from a person who has built his career building homes at various residential projects. Starting in 2007 at the Estancia Housing Project followed by the Eden Park Housing Project, both in Chennai, he has also worked at the Godrej Prakriti Housing Project and the Emami City Housing Project, both in Kolkata. “I served as Section In-charge at the TATA Housing Avenida Project, Kolkata, and presently am Section In-charge at Prestige Finsbury Park, Bengaluru,” he rounds off his many stations during his 16-year career.
At his present assignment, Balamurugan’s focus has always been on the timely and early mobilization of resources, for which he conducts weekly meetings with subcontractor supervisors and daily meetings with subordinate engineers that have considerably improved available resource utilization. “Tracking workmen’s productivity has greatly accelerated project progress too,” he notes. “We meticulously negotiated and followed up to mobilize manpower from nearby projects at competitive rates and streamlined resource allocation to increase productivity and quicken progress.”
A defining moment in his career was when after working in the finishing department for 10 years, he was given the responsibility to excavate and build an STP, 15 m below ground level. “I enjoyed the chance to do something new,” he smiles, adding that in most of the projects he has been involved with, he was responsible for producing mock-up flats for client approval and almost always received favourable feedback.
He acknowledges that digitalization is changing the face of construction, and as L&T moves forward in its journey of digital transformation, he agrees that several of the digital solutions adopted at the site have made daily submissions such as safety paperwork, quality checklists, and progress monitoring seamless.
“It is never a single man’s effort in the construction industry,” he remarks sagely, “If I have developed and flourished in this industry, it is thanks to my team members and the guidance from my seniors.” He is all praise for the company he keeps, describing L&T as an ocean in which “even the smallest fish will be recognized and cherished.”
Hailing from Palani, in Tamil Nadu’s Dindigul district, Balamurugan’s most cherished moment was when he married his life partner, B. Sindhu Bharathi, a homemaker. They are blessed with two children, a daughter, B. Aashitha, and son, B. Mohith. Playing cricket and watching the latest movies on weekends with family are what thrills him other than building homes.
CONSTANT FOCUS TO STAY ON TOP OF PROJECT PROGRESS
M Deepna
Assistant Manager (Civil), B&F IC
A yoga enthusiast, young M Deepna is moulding herself into a crack construction professional in the proving ground called L&T. “My most memorable moments are when I was selected for L&T in my 3rd year of B. Tech at NIT Warangal for internship and thereafter when I received my pre-placement offer during my 4th year,” she shares gleefully. “Yes, it was my dream job in Civil Engineering,” she nods, joining as a GET in 2019.
Quickly learning the ropes, Deepna is revelling in the challenges at B&F’s Prestige Finsbury Park Project, her first. “I handle client billing and progress monitoring, for which I make monthly invoice plans and conduct day-to-day progress review meetings to meet our invoice targets,” she shares. A day in Deepna’s life at the site is full of meetings, and apart from conducting Management Review Meetings, she interacts with the various In-charges for progress and invoice tracking, coordinates with EDRC for any design-related issues, and with the client for documentation and progress reviews. “Even the rate of pour is calculated and monitored on a daily basis to analyse the delay in slab concrete pour,” she points out.
With digitalization being one of the priorities of the site management, Deepna is glad to have extensively implemented several relevant digital solutions like Procube, Safety App, iB4u, WISA, Asset Insight, Digital Store, Conquer, the rebar, and concrete tools. “I take care of key digital initiatives like implementing the Bulk Material Wastage Reduction Tool, to reduce concrete wastage, and it was a moment to cherish when Prestige Finsbury Park was awarded the Best Bulk Material Waste Reduction Tool Implementation Site in B&F for the year 2021–22 and recognized as the best digital site in the cluster,” her excitement is palpable. “We were also in the race at the IC level,” she grins.
As a new lady on the block, Deepna has found the work environment at the site conducive, promoting a culture without biases. “Every individual is given responsibility and made accountable, which helps them thrive and excel as they grow in their careers,” she says with a maturity that belies her age. “Since I am new to the site and the environment, I have been guided on how to deal with the client and handle workmen by my seniors and colleagues. I will always be indebted to this project for my learnings, which has given me confidence to take up a new responsibility/role in my next assignment,” she says in all earnestness.
Hailing from Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh, Deepna is still only married to her career, her job and, of course, to her yoga.
He has taken SNS’s message to heart, that L&T truly brings out the best in any individual, to face the challenges of speed and scale. Ever since joining the company in 2013, Muruganantham S has tried to apply it at the projects he has been associated with thus far, including the Adani M2K Project, Delhi; L&T Raintree Boulevard, Bengaluru; and presently Prestige Finsbury Park, all through as Tower In-charge.
About his responsibilities, Muruganantham informs, “I was handling Towers 9 and 10 as Tower In-charge in the 1st & 2nd iterations, respectively, holding taskforce meetings for workmen mobilization to complete the tower within schedule, which contributed significantly towards completing in time. We completed 45,000 sqm of Basement Screed within a span of 3 months with minimal labour,” he says triumphantly.
“I have been implementing Lean construction methods as Tower In-charge at this project to reduce the cycle time of typical floors,” he points out and shares another win: Prestige Finsbury Park was the 1st runner-up for the Lean Construction Award 2021. “We have also been awarded the Rolling Trophy Award at the ILCC-2022 at NICMAR, Hyderabad,” he adds with a thumbs-up.
After completing the tower work on time, he was made responsible for the non-tower areas and basement screed to hand over basements to the Client. When asked about the secret of his success, Muruganantham says that he has given a goodquality product using old aluminium material. “We achieved a cycle time of 9 days to cast the slab in Aluminium Formwork,” he says with josh. Quite a man of awards, he happily shares that their project was awarded the Best Bulk Material Waste Reduction Tool Implementation Site in B&F for the year 2021–22 and recognized as the Best Digital Site in the Cluster.
Acknowledging the support and guidance from his seniors and colleagues especially during his early days, Muruganantham is particularly thankful to their support when using Aluminium Formwork at the Prestige Finsbury Park Project, which was new to him, finally helping him to achieve a much-improved cycle time.
A native of Nagercoil, Tamil Nadu, Muruganantham is married to Sujithra, a homemaker, and the love of his life, for marrying her is one of his life’s best moments. The other, not surprisingly, is joining L&T. They are blessed with two sons, Harsh Mahadev and Sabarishan, and when not building towers, he plays cricket and badminton.
WHAT A ‘FINISH’!
Laxmidhar Dalai
Senior Engineer (Finishing), B&F IC
Looking at the impressive towers of Bengaluru’s Prestige Finsbury Park, Laxmidhar Dalai is both proud and satisfied to have played a significant role in creating its visual appeal. “Finishes enhance the look of any building to create a positive impression on occupants and visitors,” he points out, “and everything contributes to it, right from colour, texture, look of the walls, floors, ceilings, and other surfaces.”
At this project, Laxmidhar has overcome the challenge of the lack of labour by mobilizing resources through efficient planning and organizing weekly meetings with subcontractor supervisors, conducting daily meetings with subordinate engineers to optimize resource mobilization and allocation, and using metrics to track and measure workmen’s productivity, which has accelerated project progress.
“Our approach to everything has been solution-oriented,” he remarks. “If something doesn’t work, we find a better way of doing it. We never gave up.” A true measure of their success is the appreciation they have received from the Client when approving their mock-up flats. Achieving gypsum plaster work on four floors in a month for 3 towers was another defining moment for the team. He is glad that digital tools are facilitating real-time collaboration among architects, engineers, contractors, subcontractors, and other stakeholders, which has resulted in better communication and effective decision-making. “We have successfully reduced labour expenses, minimized waste and implemented better resource allocation,” he mentions.
Laxmidhar’s association with L&T began in 2010 at the L&T Knowledge City, Vadodara, after which he has worked on a slew of projects: the Mahatma Mandir, Gandhinagar, Adani Shantigram and Godrej Garden City, both in Ahmedabad, Gujarat Housing Board, Valsad, AP Housing Project, and Bhimavram before coming to Prestige Finsbury Park. Grateful to his seniors for empowering and guiding him all through, he believes that it is thanks to their experience that he has been able to identify potential risks and meet all the project deliverables, much to the client’s satisfaction.
A native of Rourkela, Odisha, Laxmidhar is married to Pramodini Naik, a homemaker, and his most memorable moment was when he held his daughter, Pranshi Dalai, for the first time. He spends his free time riding bikes and playing volleyball.
A proud L&T-ite, Laxmidhar is grateful for the opportunities he has enjoyed. “Every day I wake up with a purpose, knowing that I am going to change cityscapes and be a part of building nations. I handle challenges through a solution-oriented approach, for after all I am a finisher,” he says with a laugh.
QUALITY IS IN HIS DNA
Nikhil K
Senior Engineer (QA/QC – Civil), B&F IC
His motto is to deliver the highest level of customer satisfaction through quality work. With this lofty ideal, Nikhil K joined L&T in 2014 as a DET at the Prestige Lakeside Habitat Project, one of Bengaluru’s largest elite housing projects, featuring 24 towers and 271 villas spread over 105 acres. “Maintaining the highest quality standards in every aspect of such a widespread project was certainly an enormous challenge, but we achieved it and delivered a super project,” he exults.
Their success paved the way for Nikhil to be a part of another massive project, Prestige Finsbury Park, a large township destination of 25 acres with 18 towers of aesthetically designed residences, situated adjacent to the Aerotropolis within the IT/Aerospace and Hardware Park developed by KIADB.
The scarcity of skilled workforce has been the team’s perennial problem, forcing them to go the extra mile to assess the skill levels of workmen and provide appropriate training wherever required. “I am accountable for both arranging and conducting Quality training programmes on-site to ensure smooth and timely execution of the project,” he shares enthusiastically, “and it’s truly satisfying to see the workmen meticulously follow the procedures, bringing alive their learning.”
“I introduced a simple ‘L’ type tool to make a lobby groove between the cement and gypsum plastering joints, to avoid level differences and undulations that helped to ease the activity and improve productivity,” shares Nikhil, with a sparkle in his eyes. Technology, automation and digital solutions are helping the team immensely to drive faster progress. The laser levelling instrument enables the team to transfer the FFL quickly and efficiently with high levels of accuracy, while the CONQUER app for inspection has made the process of preparing Quality documents and tracking them much easier.
Nikhil takes pride in appreciating his seniors Mr. G. Suresh (Project Director), Mr. Syed Nafeesuddin (CQM),
Mr. Raghavendra G.A (Project Quality Head) and team members for their constant support and guidance.
A native of Kannur, Kerala, Nikhil’s is an L&T family, for his wife, Surya, is a civil engineer with L&T. An avid sports lover, he finds time to pursue his love for cricket, carrom and table tennis. A day etched in his memory is when his team received the Annual Quality Trophy for the Prestige Lakeside Habitat. His passion to provide quality service to both internal and external customers is what sets him apart. Quality is truly ingrained in Nikhil’s DNA.
ADDING COLOUR AND
SUBSTANCE TO HIS SKETCHES
Mahesh Dhansingh
Senior Engineer (Civil), B&F IC
A pastime that gives him greatest joy is sketching, and in his decade-long association with L&T, Mahesh Dhansingh has been successfully adding colour and substance to the residential towers he has been constructing. Starting with Godrej Palm Grove, Chennai, as a DET in 2013, he has also worked at the Prestige Ferns Residency and Prestige Leela Residences, both in Bengaluru, and is presently working at Prestige Finsbury Park, still in India’s IT capital, as Tower In-charge, in which capacity, it is not surprising that all he talks about is towers.
“I have been a part of implementing lean construction methods as one of the Tower In-charges to reduce the cycle time of typical floors,” he says. Recalling the 2nd pandemic wave, he shares, “I was handling Tower 7 and we did not have sufficient manpower to even start the first setting of the tower.” He pauses with a faraway look before brightening up. “We conducted taskforce meetings about workmen mobilization and finally completed the tower in time, which went a long way to help complete the project within the contracted schedule.” His smile is broad and genuine.
Having acquired experience and expertise in building towers, Mahesh has several achievements to his credit that he proudly flags off: “We achieved an average cycle time of 10 days in completing Tower 7, which is the least among all the 18 towers, and achieved the least cycle time of 8 days in casting the slab in Aluminium Formwork.” Casting his net wider, he shares some of his triumphs: “At Prestige Leela Residences, we did post-tensioning of beams before laying the concrete slab for the first time and bar-bending scheduling at one tower.”
As mentioned by several of his colleagues at the Prestige Finsbury Park Project, several digital solutions are driving their progress like the Safety App, Procube, Digital Stores, Conquer, and Concrete tool, and the project was recognized as B&F’s Best digital site in the Cluster and the Best Bulk Material Waste Reduction Tool Implementation Site for the years 2021 & 2022.
While working at L&T has been a memorable experience for Mahesh, he acknowledges the guidance and support from his colleagues when he started his career. “Being new to Aluminium Formwork at the Prestige Finsbury Park Project, my seniors and colleagues have helped me to achieve least cycle time,” he adds gratefully.
A native of Nellore, Andhra Pradesh, Mahesh is sketching his life story with his wife, Savithri Rasuri, a homemaker, and they are blessed with two children: daughter, Aditi Rasuri, and son, Abhiram Rasuri.
LIGHTS ON!
Anshuman Singh looks at the impressive Prestige Finsbury Park with elation, having contributed to its safe and efficient design, energyefficient features, installations, and maintenance of electrical systems. “We worked closely with the architects, engineers and teams to integrate the electrical systems seamlessly into the building’s design,” he shares.
“Our state-of-the-art technologies optimize energy consumption, right from efficient lighting to smart HVAC systems, which reduces the carbon footprint,” he says. The Light Dependent Resistor (LDR) sensor implemented on the project pathways and open areas switches on lights when the sun sets and switches them off at sunrise, helping to optimize both power and manpower costs. Anshuman mentions the implementation of the Automatic Curing System that not only provides water pressure at working floor levels but also offers additional benefits such as zero maintenance cost, low power consumption, no manpower required to operate, and avoids wastage of water.
Maintaining safety standards for the chargeable and other machines used by the agencies contracted by the client to supply energy on a chargeable basis as per the strict ESG standards of L&T was critical, and Anshuman is happy that everything worked out just fine.
A DET of Batch 2015, Anshuman joined L&T at the Sap Lab and Wipro Projects in Bengaluru, from where he moved to the Prestige Song of the South delivering Site Enabling Services (SES). Currently at Prestige Finsbury Park, he is SES In-charge, with additional responsibilities of controlling and tracking RSPs and equipment demobilization. On the digital front, he has implemented IoT and RFID tags and was engaged in daily data analysis.
Generous in his praise for his seniors, he flags off his Project Manager for special mention. “He has always encouraged the team to implement new ideas and empowered me to implement the Auto Curing System and LDR, from which the project benefitted enormously in terms of cost, time, and operational efficiency. Personally, it gave me a sense of purpose.”
Hailing from Uttar Pradesh, Anshuman is married to Supriya Singh, a homemaker, and they are blessed with a baby boy, Anoop Singh. An avid sports buff, he plays cricket, badminton, TT, chess, and volleyball during his free time.
Spoken like an L&T-ite, Anshuman’s most memorable moment was receiving his offer letter and is proud to be associated with L&T, more so because the L&T team helped him arrange blood for his father during a medical emergency. “We had knocked on all doors, but finally, it was my colleagues who donated blood and saved his life,” he says emotionally. “I cannot be more blessed.”
TOWARDS CULTIVATING A POSITIVE EHS CULTURE
Jithin P Alias
EHS Engineer, B&F IC
As EHS In-charge, Jithin Alias’s responsibility is to look after the well-being of 2,000+ workmen operating 24×7 and ensure overall safety compliance at the Prestige Finsbury Park site, which he agrees requires careful resource planning and flawless coordination. Sharing some of their special initiatives to achieve his objectives, he says, “We developed an in-house online work permit system for extended hours, got night shift work permits and had these initiatives incorporated in all the business-related work such as using treated water from the STP for dust suppression and other gardening activities, contributing to Net Zero Water Discharge.” Solar beacon and solar lights are installed in the common areas of the workmen habitat to minimize the dependency on carbon fuels and promote green energy.
He is happy that digital tools and data analytics have helped enhance safety, compliance, and sustainability efforts. Their online work permit system enables the seamless flow of approvals, ensuring proactive safety measures at the workplace, and provides security access data of workmen working in the shifts for necessary control at the gate. Implementation of digital stores has resulted in swift approvals of material, tracking of indents and less dependency on manual data collection.
A DET of the 2016 batch, Jithin joined L&T at the PBEL City Phase IV, Hyderabad (Residential Business), from where he moved to the APIIC Project (Development for KIA Motors) before assuming his current assignment. “I am truly a B&F man, having worked both in buildings and factory projects,” he grins cheekily. “That exposure has given me an edge, widening my knowledge of blasting works, high rise structures and even road works.”
Grateful to his seniors for their continuous guidance and mentorship to inculcate the ‘zero harm’ safety culture in the team, Jithin flags off George Abraham (Head – Operations, Residential South & East), G. Suresh (Project Director), S. Lakshmi Narayanan (Cluster EHS Manager, Bangalore) and Rajesh Kumar (Cluster EHS Coordinator, Bangalore) for special praise.
A native of Perumbavoor in Kerala, his family is his father, Alias PP, a farmer; mother, Achamma, an agriculture trainer; and brother, Jibin P Alias. He enjoys playing cricket and football in his free time. His memorable moments include receiving awards for outstanding performance, achieving 13 million safe manhours without any LTI at the Prestige Finsbury Park Project and being part of the APIIC Project site team that created a new record within L&T for safely executing 1.5 Lakh MT hard rock blasting in a single day.
A proud L&T-ite, Jithin believes that the organization hones its employees to rise to challenges of great speed and scale, with continuous learning opportunities, and to be a notch above the rest.
FINISHING IS SO CRITICAL TO PROJECT HANDOVER
Ashutosh Chauhan
Technician, B&F IC
Often, people forget that project handover is almost entirely dependent on the quality of finishing, even more so in the case of residential towers because one is not dealing with just one client, but multiple flat owners. Since he has been a part of L&T, an organization he believes will bring out the best in any individual and prepare him/her to face the challenges of speed and scale, Ashutosh Chauhan has been working to improve the finishing of the projects that he has been associated with. “I was taking care of the structure at BIAL T2,” he shares, proud of having handled
an extremely challenging project. After finishing the WIPRO SEZ Project at Bengaluru as Finishing Supervisor, he is now at the Prestige Finsbury Park as Finishing Engineer from 2021.
Sharing about his responsibilities at the site, Ashutosh says,
“I was taking care of the waterproofing for Buildings 1 and 2 where we stamp-marked the walls in the waterproofing areas to identify ongoing activities, and threshold has been done to avoid water flowing from the sunken area.” While doing the protection screed on the terrace, the team placed small cross-reinforcement bars at all perpendicular junctions to avoid cracks and have reused some 5 lakh litres of water for tiling works that was originally used to test the waterproofing of the STP.
Of course, it has not all been smooth sailing for Ashutosh and team, who have always been disrupted by the shortage of skilled workmen for waterproofing. They have been addressing this issue by mobilizing the workforce through regular follow-ups. “Our daily sunrise meetings helped a lot to get the structure from the structural team for waterproofing works,” he says tightly, and adds that the flow of rainwater from the working to the ‘live’ floor has been prevented by placing plywood with mortar.
Getting placed at L&T from the campus recruitment when completing ITI has been Ashutosh’s life’s most wonderful moment, and his 4-year stint here has been enriched by the guidance and support from his colleagues. “Being in finishing, I have tried to implement new initiatives by coordinating with my colleagues,” he says with gratitude.
Still single, Ashutosh, who hails from Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh, spends his free time playing e-sports, badminton, and making portraits. “Being a North Indian, I can understand South Indian languages like Kannada, Tamil, and Telugu and am trying to speak all these languages,” he smiles, mentioning a unique aspect of himself in conclusion.