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InsightVolume No. 2 Issue : 4October 20124-Laning Jammu-UdhampurHighway Project

InsightVolume No. 2 Issue : 4 October 2012From MD’s DeskIn the last few issues of AFCONS Insight, we have discussedabout our core competencies, strategic equipment base,strategic innovation and collaborative work culture. We believethat in this 21st century, the above practices and factors will playa vital role in keeping us on the forefront in the Infrastructuredevelopment sector. We have categorically identified continuousinnovation and collaboration as our key drivers for the success.Recently, we have launched Knowledge Management (KM)Portal to encourage and motivate our people to share theirvaluable knowledge and preserve the same. KM portal is anexcellent example that encourages organizations to shift to amore interconnected way of thinking. Now-a-days, organizationsshould become more like communities, where employees canfeel a sense of commitment towards it. In future, I hope to seemore launches of such portals and see our shift from Trainingand Development to Learning Organization.Going forward, Walk an extra mile will be our mantra, when itcomes to carrying out projects as well as in our internal work culture. Let me share a simple definition of Walk an extramile, i.e. your position is not just a 'job' for you. Rather you recognize yourself as a part of a large family or a team; and youdon't mind helping or doing activities outside your duties and assigned tasks, to achieve our common goal.Let us look at this definition in our work place - we should never consider ourselves as a mere contractor; rather we haveto build a sustainable relationship with our clients and stakeholders and be their partner, and always take a pride in buildingcustomer delight. We have to create a unique identity in our industry by continuously reinventing ourselves whileexecuting challenging projects in India and overseas.As the current market scenario is not that conducive for the infrastructure development sector, several reforms are takingplace and clients are becoming more demanding; we have to deal with these challenges successfully. In such a toughsituation our efforts should be limitless and each one of us must go beyond our limits to provide support and doeverything possible to help the job completed in time, with proper quality and HSE standards.In this regard, I am happy that so far we have been able to deliver most of the challenging projects on or ahead of time;and we would like to carry this legacy forward.Our aim is to continue the same practice - to execute projects on or ahead of time and be a part of our client's success. Butat the same time, we would like to take our relationship with our partners and clients to the next level that will besustainable for a long period.- K SubrahmanianMaking HeadlinesMost Admired Companies 2012 Award by Construction WorldFor the 6th time in a row, AFCONS got the Most Admired Companies of India2012 Award from Construction World.3 Special Feature 4 Profile 5 HSC 5 Tracking Safety 5 Event6 Coming Up at AFCONS 6 Key New Inductions 6 Life at AFCONS 7 HR Corner

InsightVolume No. 2 Issue : 4 October 2012Special Feature4 - Laning Jammu-Udhampur Highway ProjectOverviewAFCONS is currently executing one of the mostchallenging road projects in the HimalayanKingdom of Jammu & Kashmir. It is appointed asEPC contractor by SP Jammu Udhampur HighwayPrivate Ltd., who is the concessionaires for NationalHighways Authority of India (NHAI) to convert theexisting Jammu-Udhampur road to a 4 - lanehighway. SMEC International Pty Ltd. is theindependent engineer for this project.Jammu & Kashmir has acquired highest strategicimportance in view of international borders, withneighboring countries. Thus, it is absolutelynecessary to have good linkage between Jammu &Kashmir with the rest of the Country. Jammu-Udhampur road is one of the important cultural,business and strategic link. Kashmir being touristparadise, this link has immense tourist importance.The National Highway-1A connects cities ofJalandhar (Punjab) with Uri (J&K). It traversesthrough Jammu, which is winter capital of the stateand Udhampur and then Srinagar (summer capitalof the State). The NH-1A connects important Armyand Air bases in the state of J & K. It also serves asthe main pilgrimage and tourist route for pilgrimsgoing to Vaishno Devi and Amarnath, tourists goingto Kashmir valley and even further upto Leh.Project DetailsThe 4-laning Jammu-Udhampur Highway Project isa part of NH-1A that originates at Jalandhar andterminates at Uri covering Pathankot (Punjab),Jammu, Udhampur, Patop, Batote, Banihal andSrinagar. The starting point of present projectsection has been fixed at Km 15.000 of JammuBypass and ends at Chainage Km 67.000 of NH-1Atraversing through Nagrota Bypass, Nandini wild lifeand Udhampur Bypass. The total length of this roadsection is 64.579Km.Challenges for ExecutionUnlike any other conventional road project inplain areas, this Jammu-Udhampur project is ahill road project executed by AFCONS for thefirst time, which has its own unique features. Inthis project, survey and finalisation of plan andpreparing the profile has been an exhaustiveexercise because of the complicated terrain andstrict design stipulations on speed andgeometrics. Planning and construction ofinnumerous number of bridges and culvertspassing over valleys and streams within theshort time period available, without disruptingthe existing traffic, is indeed a big challenge.At the same time, widening of road along theexisting highway and reconstruction of itwithout disrupting the traffic by using diversionscoupled with detailed planning and schedulingare critical to this project. Land acquisition hasbeen a great challenge as the work startedwith 40% of available land as against 80%of contractual requirement. Therefore,construction activities are being planned to suitthe phase wise release of land, keeping thetarget completion dates unaltered.AFCONS has successfully achieved “3.3Million Man hours without any Lost TimeAccident (LTA)” in this project and becauseof this our client SP Jammu UdhampurHighway Pvt. Ltd. has recently issuedAppreciation Letters too.3

InsightVolume No. 2 Issue : 4 October 2012Major Value-engineering InnovationsTo tackle the above challenges successfully,AFCONS introduced many value-engineeringinnovations. Some of the key innovations arelike-• At few locations, it is found that the heights ofabutments are very high with major quantityof backfilling. In such structures it iseconomical to add additional spans to reduceheight of bridge abutments, filling in approachand return walls. The span arrangements ofsuch structures are configured to increase thelength of bridge.• Box girders are replaced by ‘I’ girders in somestructures to make use the available bridgebuilding technology to have ease and speedyconstruction.• There are considerable number of multi-cellbox culverts that are changed to 20Mstandard span bridges to have an ease,speedy construction and standardisation.• Use of box culverts in place of slab culvert forreduction in quantities and more resistant todifferential settlement.• Combination of RE wall and RCC wall for highretaining wall more than 10M for speedyconstruction.• Extensive use of Neoprene bearings in asmany bridges that are being proposed withstandard 20M span to make the roadwithin the available ROW, to meet designrequirements and to avoid fouling of someexisting structures.Benefits of the Project once CompletedA lot of socio-economic growth is being witnessedin the vicinity of this project, because of enhancedemployment and business opportunities out of theproject. Presently, it takes about 3 hours fromJammu to Udhampur in a Jig Jag road. Once thehighway is completed, it will not take more than oneand half hour’s comfortable ride to cover the samestretch. The traffic movement will be free andwithout traffic jams. The army convoy movementwill be smoother, which is strategically veryimportant and at the same time the tourism for J&Kwill be enhanced because of the highway.ProfileMr. G. Mathisekaran isworking with us for past 17years and joined us as SiteEngineer, Planning and hiscurrent designation is JointGeneral Manager - Planning.He has done his BE in CivilEngineering from GovernmentMr. G. MathisekaranCollege of Technology,Coimbatore; M.B.A from Madurai KamarajUniversity and additionally done his PG Diploma inComputer Applications from Alagappa University,Karaikudi. He has a vast 21+ years of experience inPlanning & Methods, Piling and Civil works.Mr. Mathi is a totally dedicated professional whobelieves that proper time management and detailplanning are a must for executing challengingprojects on or ahead of time. At AFCONS, he is apart of many successful project planning such as -Paradeep Coal Wharf (the first steel pile jetty byAFCONS), Ennore Coal Wharf, Nagapattinam OilJetty, Shell Hazira Jetty, Mauritius Jetty,Madagascar, Sohar Jetty, Dubai Nad Al ShebaBridges and Delhi Metro Projects, etc. to name afew.Over the years, Mr. Mathi contributed to AFCONS inthe areas of - evaluating the work methodologiesand resource planning for the projects, workingclosely with the CPE dept. for equipment planningand with the design dept. for enabling worksschemes. His role during the tendering stage of aproject in detail planning and methods/schemes(especially in marine projects) is noteworthy. He hasalso conducted training programs like PrimavaraProject Planner for the planning engineers inAFCONS HO/sites, in association with HRD &Systems Dept. In future, he would like to contributeextensively in developing a strong team forplanning and methods.Under the guidance of Mr. Giridhar R (Director -Technical), Mr. Mathi has implemented WeeklyPlanning Process (part of Last Planner) at all theprojects of AFCONS. This process allows sites toinvolve all execution team members into micro levelplanning, innovation and collaboration, to achievethe targets.Married to Ms. A. Gomathi, Mr. Mathi has a son and4

InsightVolume No. 2 Issue : 4 October 2012a daughter. Wife, Gomathi is a housewife, son,M. Revanthraj is in 7th standard and daughter,M. Srinidhi Rajalakshmi is studying in 2nd standard.Besides work, Mr. Mathi loves to spend maximumtime with his family and at his native place. He lovesreading Tamil publications and has a keen interestin listening to various kind of music and playingChess.Admiring the contributions of Mr. Mathisekaran,our Managing Director Mr. K. Subrahmanian says,‘Mathi is a rare breed. While his contributions inhis field are outstanding; he is neverthelessunassuming, collaborative and a team man.’HSEHSE ConclaveHSE (Health, Safety & Environment) StrategyConclave was conducted at our H.O from 21st - 23rdSeptember 2012. Our Managing Director, Mr. K.Subrahmanian inaugurated the Conclave and in hisspeech he stressed upon his willingness to go anextra mile to achieve Total Safety Management atAFCONS.The Key resolutions made in this Conclave are;• Report & Analyse near misses to reduce accidents• Behavior Based Safety (BBS) for line managers• HSE Budget & KRA’s for the HSE officers• Revised MIS report format for capturing potentialnearmissesLater, a visit to the Pentasafe gaming zone wasarranged and a soft skill development program onStrategy & Perusing Skill was conducted for theparticipants.HSE Conclave 2012Training & AwarenessStrategic initiative of behavior based training waskick started on 1st August 2012 at H.O for our topmanagement. The same was conducted at the sites(Dahej, Kolkata) by external faculty & Head - HSEcovering senior management (up to grade M1).Environment & Health Tips• Expose your skin to sunlight in the morning toavoid orthopedic related diseases• Use CFL to save energy but be careful whilehandling broken lamp it leads to health hazards• Top up water in the inverter battery, if it is ‘off’• Eat fruits on empty stomach or before the lunch /dinner, never after the FoodFor any HSE related queries, please contactsafety@afcons.com.Tracking SafetyRVNL, Kolkata Project Implementation Unit hasissued an Appreciation Letter to AFCONS forachieving "1 Million Safe Man hours" till 31st Aug2012.SP Jammu Udhampur Highway Pvt. Ltd. has issuedan Appreciation Letter to AFCONS (Udhampur) forsuccessfully achieving "3.3 Million Man hours withoutany Lost Time Accident (LTA)”.SP Jammu Udhampur Highway Pvt. Ltd. has issuedan Appreciation Letter to AFCONS (Jammu) forsuccessfully achieving "3 million Man hours withoutany Lost Time Accident (LTA)”.EventLaunch of AFCONS KM Portal-AFCONS GNOSISOur Chairman, Mr. Shapoor Mistry inaugurated ourKnowledge Management (KM) portal ‘AFCONSGNOSIS’ during the quarterly review meeting on20th July 2012. KM is the discipline of leveragingthe organisation knowledge to improve employeeproductivity, efficiency and morale. The visionof AFCONS GNOSIS is to create conduciveenvironment and culture, where knowledge andbest practices can be shared throughout theorganisation by linking the employees to the rightexpertise; to improve their efficiency andproductivity.5

InsightVolume No. 2 Issue : 4 October 2012Coming Up at AFCONSConstruction work for port of PipavavAFCONS got this project recently from GujaratPipavav Port Ltd. The major scope of the workinvolves construction of reclamation, groundimprovement & bound construction, construction ofberths and a container yard.Construction of elevated viaduct and 2 stationsfor DMRCAFCONS got this project from DMRC. The scope thework includes part design and Construction ofElevated viaduct and Ramp of length 2653.44 rmt.and construction of 2 elevated stations (Sadar Bazar& Shankar Vihar) on Palam to Shankar Vihar stretchof Line-8 of Phase - III of Delhi MRTS.Fuel Quay Repair Works at Buchanan Port,LiberiaAFCONS got this project of Fuel Quay Repair Worksat Buchanan Port, Liberia from ArcelorMittal LiberiaLtd. The volume of major work includes excavation& filling, underwater cutting of steel piles,underwater welding of sheet piles, jet grouting andconcrete works.has worked with AFCONS, HCC, Peninsula Land Ltd.and Patel Reality India Ltd. His last assignment waswith Soma Enterprises Ltd. as a Sr. GeneralManager.Life at AFCONSAFCONS witnessed a quarter full of celebrations allacross the sites as well as at HO. We have celebratedevents like Engineer's Day & Independence Day andfestivals like Ganesh Pooja, Onam and VishwakarmaPooja at the HO as well as at sites.Engineers DayEngineers Day was celebrated with enthusiasmacross AFCONS' domestic as well as overseasprojects on 15th September 2012. This year's themewas 'Business Innovation' which means 'Innovationencompassing all facets of business. It can be in anyform, which adds value to the business / businessprocesses.Key New InductionsMr. K. Pari has joined us as Joint General Managerfor our Liberia projects. He has a vast experience inthe infrastructure sector. He has worked with L & T,CCC Ltd. His last assignment was with B. E.Billimoria Ltd. at the level of General Manager(Industrial Projects).Mr. Arun Kumar Mishra has joined us as GeneralManager, Projects. He has a vast experience inInfrastructure, bridges, flyovers, viaducts andspecialised civil engineering. He has worked withMaker Developers Pvt. Ltd., Cemindia Co. Ltd.,Trafalgar House Construction, KavaernerCementation India Ltd., Birla GMT Ltd., SkanskaCementation India Ltd., Nagarjuna Construction Co.Ltd., and HCC. His last assignment was with ITDCementation India Ltd. as a Project Director.Mr. Rajesh K. Deshpande has joined us as GeneralManager, Projects. He has a vast experience inproject execution in the infrastructure sector. HeVishwakarma PoojaVishwakarma Pooja was performed on 17thSeptember 2012 at various site locations includingShell Hazira, Jordan, Bahrain, KRCL, Butibori,Connaught Place, Chenab, Jammu and Udhampur.Ganesh ChaturhiEngineers Day Celebration at BahrainOn the auspicious occasion of Ganesh Chaturhi,Ganesh Pooja was performed at many project siteson 19th September 2012. The festival Onam was alsocelebrated in this month with great enthusiasm at allKochi sites.66th Independence DayIndia's 66th Independence Day was celebrated withvigour and zest at AFCONS HO as well as at varioussites including CMRL, Jammu & Udhampur roadproject, Chenab CBPU Project, KRCL Project andJordan.6

InsightVolume No. 2 Issue : 4 October 2012HR CornerProject Management TrainingProject execution calls for structured projectmanagement skills and that leads to achievingExcellence in Execution.The second batch of training-cum-certificationprogram on ‘Project Management’ was conductedat our HO from 11-15th September 2012 fornominated employees. The inaugural session waschaired by our Deputy MD, Mr. S. Paramasivan,who emphasized on creating the desiredenvironment for Excellence in Execution havingproject management skills. Mr. R. Giridhar(Director - Technical) also shared his experiencesand impotence of project management. Theprogram was conducted by elite trainer Ms. RuchiraJain (PMA, New Delhi).'Competency' based Soft Skill Training‘Competency based Soft Skill Workshop’ wasconducted based on the overwhelming response onthe ‘Personal Effectiveness’ workshops carried outin the previous years.We have conducted the ‘Competency based SoftSkill’ workshops at our Dahej and Opal sites andgradually would continue to spread across all othersites. These workshops will develop a platform toenhance the competencies of each employee,where he/she is lacking; as identified by his/herproject manager.Effective Business Writing Skills WorkshopAFCONS is conducting workshops on ‘BusinessWriting Skills’ for last two years with an objective tohelp the employees improve their business writingskills.A 2-day workshop on ‘Effective Business WritingSkills’ was organized at HO on 29-30th August 2012,where employees from various departmentsparticipated. Some of the key topics covered inthese 2-day sessions were - writing minutes of themeeting, creating meeting agendas, writingeffective e-mails and creating effective PowerPointpresentations. The workshop was facilitated byMr. Vincent D’Silva, Executive Director SilvaManagement Services.Workshop on Whole Wellness ModelThe ‘Whole Wellness Models’ are designed toprovide a comprehensive understanding andinsights on the four dimensions of wellness toachieve a healthy, happy and stress free life.A workshop on ‘Whole Wellness Model’ wasconducted for employees of Dahej and OPAL sitesfrom 30th August to 1st September 2012. Theobjective was to increase the individual’s selfawareness on different dimensions of wellness andmake him/her aware for his health and wellness.The workshop was conducted by Ms. Bhakti Prasad(Head- HR) & Ms. Tejaswini Joshi (HR).Workshop on Personal Health Awareness &DiagnosticAs a part of our drive on achieving Whole Wellness,a workshop on ‘Personal Health Awareness &Diagnostic’ was conducted at HO for various seniorexecutives.The program was based on the science of‘Environics', which is a diagnostic system that cangauge the present health conditions and vitalparameters of the human body like - Indication ofyour vital organs health, through non invasivediagnostic system; assess the areas you need tostrengthen or even seek expert medical help on,without undergoing expensive medical testsinitially; and Simple ‘Do it yourself‘ to improveoverall immunity, specific disorders like, functioningof Heart, Diabetes, Blood Pressure, Thyroid, etc.Mr. Ajay Poddar MD, Synergy Environics Ltd.conducted the workshop.7

InsightVolume No. 2 Issue : 4 October 2012Mr. S. Sankar, Director (Contracts) is receiving the Award and Trophy on behalf of AFCONS, for being oneamongst 'India's Most Admired Companies 2012’ by ‘Construction World’.Editorial board : S Paramasivan, Sandeep Desai, Bhakti Prasad, Krishnakumari C, Debendra MohantaAn ISO 9001:2008 CompanyRegistered Office :AFCONS House, 16, Shah Industrial Estate, Veera Desai Road, Azadnagar, Andheri (West),Mumbai - 400 053, IndiaTel : +91-22-6719 1000 Fax No : +91-22-2673 0047/ 2673 0026www.afcons.comDisclaimer: Afcons Insight is for private circulation only. The views and opinions expressed or implied herein are of the contributors and may not necessarily reflect those of Afcons Infrastructure.Content from this publication should not be reproduced, in part or in whole, without the consent of the editorial team.