B&F projects win 8 ‘Sword of Honour’
awards in 2020!

Keeps a good habit by winning for the 5^th consecutive year!

Old habits, they say, are hard to break. Projects of B&F IC have made it a good habit of regularly winning the British Safety Council’s ‘Sword of Honour’ awards, widely regarded as the pinnacle of EHS success. In 2020, as the rest of the world was busy combatting the pandemic, 8 B&F projects won the award marking a new high in EHS performance. “We were among 65 establishments (35 organisations) worldwide that won the Sword of Honour awards this year,” shares a proud P Nagarajan, Head – EHS, B&F IC. “Each of the winning projects demonstrated to the auditors and an independent adjudication panel that they had a proven track record and culture of best practice for excellence in health and safety management that runs throughout the business.”

The difference lies in EHS leadership

The onus of creating and promoting a positive safety culture starts at the very top. The seriousness and intent of the senior management to drive EHS as an imperative is clearly reflected in the EHS record of an organization, business, cluster, or project. “It is essential that every employee and workman sails in the same boat in our journey towards Mission Zero Harm,” declares J K Shivaraj, Project Director – BIAL, T-2 airport project, one of the eight winning projects. “Safety is an integral part of project implementation right from the planning stage and we need to continuously focus on the 3Es – Education, Engineering & Enforcement to succeed,” he emphasizes.

With their personal EHS objectives and goals, Project Heads set an example for their entire team to follow that include targets to participate in walkdowns, EHS committee meetings & reviews, make behaviour-based safety observations, achieve benchmarking scores in leading indicators such as audits, inspection compliances and ensure that their direct reports are given adequate EHS training. “One of my goals is to obtain a SOP score of above 90% in Critical Area Safety audits and ensure a workmen happiness index of above 90%,” states H S P Shukla, Project Director, IIT Hyderabad project, another winner, pointing to the poster on his cabin wall revealing his EHS objectives for the year. Chandran Annamalai, Project Manager of the Raheja Project again in Hyderabad, is thrilled at winning the award for he had, right at the outset, set a benchmark of obtaining a score of 95%+ in the BSC 5-star audit. Driving a focused programme for risk reduction at site, regular visits to workmen habitats and attending EHS training programmes are some of the other personal objectives set and being followed.

Integrated work platforms

“We identified the need for temporary work platforms at the planning stage itself,” shares Project Director, Syamprasad Vishnubatta at his award-winning RAMCO Line 3 project at Jayanthipuram. “which we designed based on the structure and integrated it before erection in coordination with the Construction Methods & Planning Cell.” His EHS In-charge, Peerimiya Khan elaborates. “The maximum works are done at the ground level itself and integrated to the structure that is lifted. This initiative has greatly reduced the risk of working at height as these temporary work platforms are completely boarded with handrails, lifeline arrangement for anchorage, etc.”  

At the Chennai International airport, Project Director, Anup Chulliyil had to complete complex structural works over a live flyover for which he and his award-winning team provided fall protection measures like safety nets, lifelines. “Every platform is numbered and inspected daily before start of work,” Anup confirms.

Compressor Guard Machine

Improving guarding standards

Standards related to guarding are undergoing constant improvements internationally as part of continual improvement and benchmarking though unfortunately some of the equipment being manufactured and supplied currently in the domestic market do not meet stringent standards like 360 degree guarding in a few areas. G Krishna, Project EHS Head at IIT, Hyderabad points out that they “conducted specific gap analysis and identified areas for improvement in guarding standards to meet the latest international standards.” Although these additional guards are not yet being manufactured domestically, both Krishna and Project EHS Head, T Bhuvaneshwaran at the Raheja project, have taken the initiative to either source or fabricate them at site like 360-degree end guards on conveyors for batching plants; self-adjusting guards for wood cutting machines and 360-degree guards in bar cutting machines.

A vertical safety net around a circular building

Staying safe during roofing

EHS In-charge, R V Sudhakar, at the BIAL project, is committed to keep his people safe during the erection and construction of the massive and impressive terminal roof. “We planned for it meticulously and managed it very well,” he says enumerating the several steps taken to ensure 100% safety. “We had a roof induction for anyone who wanted to enter the roof right from the MD to the workmen with entry only against roof passes with mandatory harness.” The team installed a dedicated & controlled access system to monitor entry, lifeline and fall arrestor systems for workmen and installed anti-slippery mats. Mock drills for the emergency rescue systems were regularly conducted and a foreign object debris control system was instated and monitored daily. Technology also helped Sudhakar to maintain safety with the use of Mobile Elevated Working Platform (MEWP) systems like boom & scissor lifts instead of scaffolds.

Roof work – Fall restraint systems

Managing traffic efficiently

One of Anup’s key concern areas was traffic management at his Chennai airport project site and as his EHS Incharge,  V Satish says, “it was completely managed by us, including all the internal roads and bifurcations for passenger, employee and vehicular movements that included providing barriers, traffic marshals, convex mirrors at appropriate locations, and our effort was well appreciated by the client.”

Having to construct a tower bang in the middle of 5 others that have already been handed over and are occupied is a challenge without precedent which Crescent Bay’s Project Director, Chandan Kumar Jana and his EHS In-charge, D G  Patil are battling with. The other major concern for them is mobilizing men & material in the congested confines of Mumbai. “We have bifurcated people and vehicular movement,” explains Satish, “prevent fall of material from heights, control dust and noise generated apart from having the safety screen system.”

EHS In-charge, R Vadivelu at the Prestige Jindal City project site shares how they have developed an acoustic enclosure placed around the concrete pump to arrest noise. “We have fitted all our tower cranes with Anti Collision Devices so that a crane can be stopped if there is danger of jibs colliding,” he adds.

An acoustic enclosure around a concrete pump to arrest noise

Being amongst the best, globally

B&F’s recognition has been the result of a 5-year-long, well thought out and executed benchmarking process, “that has helped us to align our existing practices to international benchmarks,” says Nagarajan, “in various areas of risk profiling and prioritization of action towards high risk, monitoring organisational culture, employee wellbeing, controlling hazardous substances at work and benchmarking technical standards including traffic management.” Over the five years, audits have been conducted at all types of projects ranging from mega task force projects to medium & small sized projects; clients varying from government to multinationals; across urban & rural geographies; from cement plants, hospitals, residentials, IT complexes, hotels, public spaces, airports, etc. and success demonstrates the resilience and uniformity of the EHS management system implemented.

B&F projects have set the benchmark; now it is for other projects across L&T Construction to do all the running
to catch up.

Hats off to all the winners!