Beating the clock

Infra development company Dilip Buildcon boasts an enviable track record of timeliness. Here are details of their first road project in Uttar Pradesh.
The road section DBL worked upon was basically one part of the full section of 150 km. The authorities floated open a tender for this 150 km stretch of road in three segments – km 0 to 43, km 43 to 93 and km 99 to 150 at the same time, out of which we received the stretch between km 43 to 93. The remaining stretches were allotted to two leading peer companies. We completed our project about 230 days earlier while the other two portions of the project are still work in progress. This basically shows the different and aggressive working strategy of DBL as compared to our peers.

PROJECT OBJECTIVE
The project objective included rehabilitation, upgrades and augmentation of the existing carriageway to two-lane with paved shoulders standards with construction of new pavement rehabilitation of existing pavements, construction and/or rehabilitation of major and minor bridges, culverts, road intersections, interchanges, drain, etc. and maintenance of the project during the defect liability period which is expected to be two years.

Scope of the project
Widening and reconstruction of existing road to two lane (Including urban area 4 Lanes 7.650 Km) with paved shoulder length 50.615 Km having 51 major and minor structures along with toll plaza, bus byes, truck lay bye, rest area, RCC drain, and major and minor junctions, etc.

Challenges faced
a.It is difficult to get the support of locals in the initial stages. Also, local political disturbance.
b.Major challenge was to get the main product black metal locally, so we had to take the material from the quarry, 300 km from the project site. We also had to take care of the cost of this transportation, obviously.
c.Facing land acquisition hurdles.
d.Obstruction within ROW.

Project management Techniques
a)Strict adherence of Project SOP.
b)Daily monitoring of projects from HO.
c)Deviation analysis at all levels of project.
d)Detailed analysis of GPS data attached with all fleet, curing down time of fleet through data mining.
e)Minute monitoring of mobilisation policy of resources.
f)Visits by Devendra Jain, Director, regularly; addressing all queries and hurdles at sites.
g)Re-ordering level at site.

Solutions
a)Subcontracting small works.
b)Segregate all projects in small parts like Pyramid strategy and minutely observe deviation from SOP.
c)Prepare dedicated team for black metal/aggregate procurement; who manage all the activities from quarry site to project site.
d)Maintaining proper re-order level of material on site.

Lessons learned

a)We have used a new technology called CTB (Cement Treated Base) first time in our road projects and implemented it successfully which reduced the cost of projects significantly.
b)Due to this technique, we have saved the aggregate and other petroleum products.
c)Great test of company to come out successfully with local issues like political disturbance, etc.
d)Prepare SOP for implementing new technology.

Benefits of the project
a)It is basically a matter of pride for us that we have entered the state of UP for the first time and completed our projects without compromising on quality and earned maximum early completion bonus. Due to this, we have created a good impression not only in the eyes of employer (MORTH) but the state government and local government bodies
b)For the local public, travel time got reduced by half
c)Successfully implemented new technology due to which we will save our material cost, time and overhead cost in other projects. Also, this technique is more eco-friendly because it reduces the use of petroleum products
d)Got overall knowledge for working in the state. Furthermore, we have bagged more projects in the state of UP after this so it is now easier for us to work in UP