Q1.

In the case study given identity the success or failure of the following processes Project conception, Project definition, Project planning, Project launch & execution?

! Project "onception The Konkan Railway project came with concept of Roll on Roll off (RORO), where loaded trucks are directly carried by railway wagons to their destination. Truck dri ers find it e!tremely difficult to dri e loaded trucks through "hats, undulating surfaces, narrow roads and poor road and weather conditions. This project has helped in sa ing of fuels, decrease in wear and tear of #orries (trucks), relief to dri ers of dri ing in e!treme conditions, can reach faster to destination which leads to sa ing in tra el time and money. This also helps in decongestion of roads and lowering of pollution. This concept has been beneficial for both truck operators and Konkan Railway. Therefore this project will boost to the economy of country. $owe er this project was financial challenge to raise funds due to huge cost in ol e. #! Project $efinition This is the first time in %ndian history that four state go ernments ha e joined hands with the central go ernment to begin a project of this si&e. Konkan Railway project is a highly iable project, financially ery attracti e, because it reduces distance between 'ombay ( )angalore considerably. The normal haulage distance between 'ombay ( )angalore was *+,- km. .fter the construction of this project, it would be /-, km. .lso this project sa es *0 hours between 'ombay ( )angalore ( similarly other distances. The completion of the project will benefit the public immensely, reducing journey time to "oa by -+ hours, to 1ochin by o er -* hours and to )angalore by o er *0 hours. 'esides dri ing to tourism, this railway line will contribute to a sa ings of at least Rs.*++ crore a year in foreign e!change by reducing fuel re2uirements in road transport. The entire Konkan line has been built for trains tra elling at speeds of -0+ km an hour. The project cost, initially estimated at Rs.30+ crore, has increased by o er four times. The project cost has been estimated at Rs.*,43+ crore, with the funding cost alone being Rs.55+ crore. The funding will be a combination of e2uity, debt and lease financing. Konkan Railway is being constructed on a build, operate, transfer ('OT) basis. %t helps build infrastructure like railways, dams or roads with public money being in ested. The e!pected deadline of this project was taken Oct -//, but due to ad erse economic ( politics situation it completed in the year -//3 at the cost of Rs.6555 cr.

"! Project Planning .s this project ha ing a tremendous ad antage, )r. 7reedharan has decided to take appro al from 8lanning 1ommission, central go ernment and the beneficiary state "o ernment ()aharashtra, "oa, Karnataka, and Kerala). )r. 7reedharan appointed as 1hairman of a one man committee to take up all the preliminary steps for organi&ing this project. The whole project was decided to complete in fi e years9 time. $e started the project with taking the sur eys, selection of final location, then administrati e arrangements for the lands to be

ac2uired, location of the bridges. .ll work was put in motion at the same time. They ha e decided to ha e at least a minimal speed potential of -0+ km per hour. 7o they ha e brought new technologies to cater to the high speed route. . ery pragmatic and ery practical approach they adopted for ac2uisition of land. They planned that the whole railway line would be di ided into 4 &ones, each &one concurrent with a re enue district, and a 1hief :ngineer was posted for each &one. They hired ;OT lines and then established a good communication network with the head2uarters of each of the 1hief :ngineers. They were all gi en <.= machines and computers to sort out communication problem. Then the most important steps was redesigning role of finance in the organi&ation. The finance e!ecuti e will ha e the powers to accept the ad ice. They only concentrate on the core areas of safety, guidance, management, payment to contractors and rest of things will do by outside agencies. The machines are imported and people are trained in >apan. The pressure gas welding was introduced. They decided to go in for optic fibre base Tele communication network. They selected contractors only from the pre?2ualified list. The contractors are allowed to prepare the bill. .ny bill that contractor prepares, the payment on the bill was guaranteed, so that there is no cash flow problem at all for any contractors. They set up own departmental outlets at critical areas. 7o any contractor can come and collect petrol or diesel that he wants. $! Project %aunch & execution $owe er this project would be estimated to complete 5 years9 time, ultimately took 4 years for completion. The main reason one was go ernment9s own action. There was contro ersy regard to the "oa go ernment and the work was stopped by the go ernment. The second was finance. The "o ernment contribution was only one?third, not e en one?third but only one? fourth by way of e2uity. Three?fourths of the project funds had to be raised in the market. The e!pectations were that we could raise the money from the internal market through bonds, either ta!?free bonds or ta!able bonds. @nfortunately, that was a time when there was real con ulsion in the capital market, following the $arshad )ehta scam. The third was une!pected ad erse geological conditions in some of the tunnels. The project took off so fast that there was no time to do detailed geo?technical in estigations at e ery tunnel site. ;ue to such delays in operation, e en though project was successful, it has incurred financial loss during this project period.

Q&. Identify all the i'portant sta(eholders? <ollowing are the stakeholders which can be seen as underA ? 8lanning commission 8rime minister <inance minister 7tate go ernment )aharashtra "oa Karnataka Kerala

1hief secretary ( Transport secretary of 'angalore 1hief secretary ( Transport secretary of Kerala #andowner 1hief engineers <inance officers ( :!ecuti es :ngineers <unctional Team 1ontractors )anagers %n estors .ll the abo e stakeholders were important for making Konkan Rail project successful, especially contractors, landowners ( consent of all higher go ernment authorities of all four states. Bithout stakeholders, project wouldn9t be successful. %n e ery project whether it is smaller or big, project stakeholder play a ery important role.

Q). *he success of a project depends largely on the success of the contractor. +hat steps were ta(en to ensure the success of the contractor? Konkan railway was one of the biggest railways project e er undertaken by %ndian "o ernment, where 40+ C km railway line connecting 'ombay (now )umbai) to )angalore was needed to be built. "o ernment alone didn9t ha e the strength to complete this project on its own. They had to take help of different consultants, contractors, "o t. agencies to complete this project. One of the major contributions was from the side of contractors. These were the companies who actually built the railway line along with tunnels, bridges etc. The success of the project largely depends of the success of the contractors. 'ut the success of the contractors came through steps taken by go t. These steps areA ? 1ontractors were selected from pre?2ualified list. Only recogni&ed contractors were gi en the opportunity to 2uote for the work. This was done because many times contractors fail to complete the task because of limited cash and labor flow.

;ecision making by the contractors had to be appro ed by the higher authority. Therefore it was made clear that in any comple! situation where decision was needed from superiors, the reply will be gi en within ,3 hours. This method helped the contractors continue their work without any delay.

.ll the work done by contractors was for a special purpose of getting compensation. .nd the problem with go ernment contract is that the payment for the bills prepared by the contractors used to take lot of time. .nd since contractors were not recei ing money, work would stop due to limited cash. )r. : 7reedharan and their team brought a new system in which 45D of contract money would be paid within ,3 hours and balance within - week. This helped in wiping out the cash flow problem of the contractors.

Bhen any project is undertaken by contractors, they re2uire ad ance funds first to start the work. %n Konkan project, -+D ?-5D of ad ance funds were mobili&ed when lot of e2uipment9s were in ol ed.

7o e ery month )r. : 7reedharan used to ha e a meeting with the contractors ( engineers where they used to discuss problems ( difficulties of the project and solutions were drawn out on the spot.

1ontractors used to work with big e2uipment9s like dumpers, cement mi!tures, compactors, e!ca ators etc. This construction e2uipment9s run on fuel and it was difficult for the contractors to bring fuel to the site. 7o project team sol ed this problem by setting up fuel outlets at critical areas.

The konkan railway line has many tunnels and it was difficult to make these tunnels without any sophisticated e2uipment which were only a ailable in foreign countries. 7o the go ernment made sure that the e2uipment was imported before the work began and were gi en to the contractors free of cost.

One of the most important benefits gi en to the contactors was incenti es on completion of work before time. Bhene er a contractor used to finish hisEher part of work before time, incenti es were gi en. 'ut if heEshe took more time than specified, penalty was imposed on them. This method moti ated the contractors to finish the work early.

Q,. +hat do you thin( were the areas of ris(? -ow were the ris(s 'anaged . 'is'anaged? /is( ;isappro alEresistance beneficiary state go t. 0anaged . 0is'anaged from This risk was managed by )r. "eorge <ernandes ( )r. : 7reedharan by taking serious talks to the heads of the state and making them belie e the benefits that can be deri ed from this project. 'ureaucratic approach was taken to sol e this problem. The budget deri ed to railway project in %ndia was around Rs.*5+ to Rs.6++ crores and already *+ C *5 new railway projects were on going. This was a serious problem because then it would take *5?6+ years for completion of the project. The go t. also issued ta! free bonds but it was a failure due to share market scam. .t last only choice was :!ternal 1ommercial 'orrowing (:1') through which the go t. was able to raise Rs.,++ crore. Konkan Railway project was undertaken under >anata ;al party. Bithin a week after )r. : 7reedharan was appointed as 1);, the party fell and )r. "eorge <ernande& was no more the railway minister. <or the project, the go t. had to ac2uire land from ,+,+++ landowners. This was a major problem as people would resist from selling their land. . new strategy was de eloped to tackle this problem. #andowners were gi en compensation for the land as well as rental charges for - to - F years till they are ready with their new house. 1onstructing 40+ Km railway line would take many years and huge cost. 'ut this was reduced by adopting a new strategy where in Konkan line was di ided in 4 &ones and construction was started at each &one at the same time. 'y this the time as well as cost of the project was reduced. )any times in construction project, the risk of incomplete work from the side of contractor is ery high. This risk was managed by gi ing contract only to recogni&ed, pre? 2ualified contractors who ha e ade2uate cash flow. %n a cross state construction project, many times there is go ernment interference. This problem aroused when "O% stopped work in "oa sector for / months. There was no

'udget for the project

>anata ;al party collapsed

;ifficulty in ac2uiring land

;ifficulty in making 40+ Km line

Risk of contractors

8olitical %nterference

solution to this had a terrible effect on the rest of the project. ;ifficult geological conditions The project only had 5 years9 time. %n this time, all kinds of sur ey, clearance, and geological inspection had to be done. Tunnels needed geo?technical in estigations, but there was no time. .ccidents took place while e!ca ating tunnels in mountains. This delayed the project. Bhile some people thought that the project was economically beneficial, some en ironmental groups raised 2uestions towards its impact to ecology in the konkan area. These groups stated that the project would cause destruction of ecology, damage to historical sites and disrupt the lifestyles of people in densely populated coastal region.

:n ironment impact

Q1. Identify the areas of good co''unication or the lac( of it? The Konkan Railway project is 40+km railway line connecting 'ombay to )angalore along the Best 1oast of the country. 7o it is ery important for the people who are in ol ed in this project to communicate with each other for the completion of the project. The main factor in this project is to establish an e!cellent communication network. To reach 'ombay to Ratnagiri used to take so many hours. 7o they hired ;OT lines and then established a good communication network with the head2uarters of each of the 1hief :ngineers. They were all gi en <.= machines, they were all gi en computers. . computer networking was done, so that e erybody can ha e any information he wants from anywhere and message can be passed on time.

: ery month on a nominated date )r. : 7reedharan would sit with the contractors and concerned engineers and used to see the problems faced by the team and on the spot used to sort out the problems. 7o that there is no difficulty at all for the progress of the work.

)r. : 7reedharan started a no el e!periment or a new style to keep e erybody well informed. : ery )onday they had a meeting with the $ead of ;epartments, where all the problems connected with the whole project were discussed. They analy&e the slippage in the pre ious week and then they decide what is re2uired to be done in the ne!t week. On the first )onday of the month, the field engineers are also brought into this meeting, so that e erybody contributes and e erybody knows what are the priorities of management, what is the iew of the management on any issue.

Q2. +hat were the new technologies used in 3on(an /ailway project? a. 4ptical fi5re ca5le <irst time in the history of %ndian Railway, Optical fibre cable was used in Tele? communication network. .t that time it was a new technology which sensed a lot of opposition but today optical fibre cable is a common thing. Today in the %ndian railway system, the konkan railway has the longest stretch of optical fibre cable.

5. Incre'ental launching 'ethod This is a new technology used for the - st time in %ndia (same technology was used in ;elhi )etro). %ncremental launch is a method of building a complete bridge deck from one end to other end.

c. #allast less trac( %n %ndia, traditional railway lines are most famous. Gou can see these railway lines in )umbai. . disad antage of traditional track structures is hea y demand for maintenance which leads to hea y maintenance cost. This can be o ercome by using ballastless track. This track is ery e!pensi e in first cost but its whole life cost can be lower because of reduction in maintenance re2uirement. This ballast less track was used by Konkan railway in many tunnels.

d. 6as pressure welding . new technology of gas pressure welding came from foreign countries was used. 8eople were trained for this technology in >apan. The ad antage of gas pressure welding is that it can be done at the site itself. Traditional welding methods can only be done in welding shops. .nd it was a problem to get the welded railing to the site again.