How Not to Run a Project: Debacle at Wakka
1 x 67 MW HEP
Sunil Kumar 1, Krishna Moorthy 2, Ananthmula Vittal 2
1
Faculty, 2Dean,
L & T Institute of Project management, Vadodara, India.
Abstract—Power is one of the important areas for
development of human kind in modern world but various
developing countries are facing acute shortage of power
for base as well as peak load. India one of the contender
for emerging modern economy and on path of self sufficiency,
is no exception. Till 1990, Indian economy was closed
one and nearly all of the infrastructural area were in
direct control of government or its allied body for
development. But after economic liberalization in 1990,
scenario has changed and power sector has become suddenly
lucrative for independent power producer. This has further
opened up avenue for power plant manufacturer and
consultant worldwide and they would like to use vast
talent pool of Indian engineer and cheap labor and local
material for setting up their Indian operation. But
what appears to be easy in a first glance is not true
when it comes to operational level, due to various issue
related to project and construction management of
large size infrastructural project. It ranges from availability
of qualified staff at reasonable rate, labor productivity,
business practices and type of ownership, commitment
of customer obligation, resource management, vendor
development, logistics problem, area specific issue etc
which must be taken care of, or else project is destined
to be ruined. These entire factors are related to each
other in many ways and leads to failure of the project.
The case, written on basis of generalized experience in
hydro sector during last 10-15 years , try to capture
ground reality for getting the work done by owner in
field of hydro power project and various issues related
to execution of remotely located construction project in
India has been considered. It may appears that nothing
in the case has gone in right way but that is how many
of project get done or executed or sometime abandoned
after some preliminary work. Normally we focus on
successful parameter in any project but even if we are
able to capture what went wrong, it can be eye opener
for construction project professional operating in India
and will ultimately lead to success of the project by
avoiding all pitfalls.
Keywords—Hydroelectric Project, Site Management,
Construction Project, Site Finance, Project Execution.
I. I NTRODUCTION
A. Power Scenario and Emerging Hydroelectric
Construction Project
The invention of electricity has been one of the wonder
for human kind and more so when we consider the present
life style across the country. It is impossible to dream
of living in absence of electricity in modern times. Can
find area in our life where electrical power is not touching
us. Be it household or professional level for all type of
individual or organization.
Power is an essential requirement for all facets of our
life and has been recognized as a basic human need. It
is the critical infrastructure on which the socio-economic
development of the country depends. The growth of the
economy and its global competitiveness hinges on the
availability of reliable and quality power at competitive
rates. The demand for power in India is enormous and
is growing steadily. The vast Indian power market, today
offers one of the highest growth opportunities for private
developers. Unlike yester years, power project cycle time
has reduced continuously due to tremendous effort by major
player in the construction field.
India is endowed with a wealth of rich natural resources
and sources of energy. Resources for power generation
are unevenly dispersed across the country. This can be
appropriately and optimally utilized for reliable supply
of electricity to each and every household. Electricity is
considered key driver for the targeted economic growth
of India.
With liberalization starting circa 1991, license era like
investment, industrial and import licensing was done away
with and ended monopoly of some firm came to end,
allowing automatic approval of foreign direct investment
in many sectors. Power sector which had been funded
mainly through budgetary support and external borrowings
was thrown open to private sector in 1991 giving
opportunity to various private organizations. Various factors
has been considered as responsible for success of the
project, however there is no generalization on the
agreement. The aim of this study is to examine factors
that lead to failure of project in hydroelectric sector in
India in the emerging globalized economic scenario.
II. L ITERATURE R EVIEW
Construction project mainly cover Planning, Cost
Management, Time Management, Quality Management,
Contract Administration, Safety Management,, it also
includes construction manager practices of defining the
responsibilities and management structure of the project
management team, organizing and leading by implementing
project controls, defining roles and responsibilities and
developing communication protocols, and identifying
elements of project design and construction likely to give
rise to disputes and claims. Due to problem in any of these,
project will start deviating from its path and in most of
the cases seeds are shown in early stage of the project.
If project has to be completed in true essence of contract,
it has to be in control right from beginning.
K. C. Iyer and K. N. Jha (2006) have identified some
55 attributes responsible for impacting schedule
performance for Indian construction project. After
preparing initial list of attributes, they were assessed for
impact on schedule of project in way of success or failure
or no impact attributes. These factors then analyzed for
their property through Statistical package and it was found
that out of 55 attribute, only six factors collectively explain
80 % of the deviation i.e. Project manager competence,
supportive owner, proper monitoring and control, favorable
work condition, commitment of participant and owner
competence.
Chang, Lung, Ogunlana, Khalid (1991) have given
system dynamics approach to construction project.
According to them from inception to completion,
construction management involve numerous processes,
parties and variable which interact and affect each other
in varying degrees to determine the time, cost, standard
of end product and the realization of project objective.
Some of the main ingredient for successful implementation
of construction project are outlined by Wang (1987) as
sufficient and timely supply of qualified and experience
technical personnel, material required and tools and
equipment. They also inferred that higher schedule pressure
on project wosen the system behavior and increase the
project completion date although it increases the working
intensity. It also generates more accidents as well as reduces
quality of work.
Florence Yean Yng Ling and Thi Thuy Dung Bui(2010)
have examined the major factors that affect project
performance in Vietnam , defining with project success
as completion on time and on budget, and to an acceptable
quality standard.
One of the finding show that involvement of foreign
experts is critical to project and has proven to be positive.
Local construction firms may consider working with expat
as learning opportunities to transfer technology and
management skills which is suitable for their country.
Whereas foreign firm also need to learn some aspect mainly
managing cross cultural encounters before entering new
country in order to use their competitive advantage.
There are few studies which has been carried out in
public for post mortem of successful or failed project in
India particularly for newly completed project where project
are subjected to new emerging issues such as opening
of various area earlier reserved for government firm, advent
of new technology, allowing global competition where
as infrastructure, competitive level of contractor remain
poor or lacking fresh ideas of tackling problem. Purpose
of writing this paper is to study and share experience we
had in hydro electric construction project in the recent
time which is also reflecting real work scenario not only
hydro but other infrastructure project as well. It gives
number of input for MNC for better understanding of Indian
situation in project field for better understanding of ground
reality.
III. C ASE S TUDY
A. Damyanti Logistics Limited
Damyanti logistics limited (DLL) is a pioneer and leader
in the door-to-door express distribution and supply chain
solutions in India. It was the revolutionary approach
adopted by the company that helped launch many path-
breaking initiatives in the logistics segment and many were
the firsts for the Indian market starting with handful of
person with dingy single room office in small town of
Kerala. In a span of 40 years, DLL has consistently explored
ways to bring premium value to the customer, by setting
benchmarks in quality of service and customer satisfaction.
Having started as a cargo management company in
1969, DLL has grown into an organization with more than
9500 employees and a turnover of Rs 576 crores (approx.
94 million euro) covering 603 out of 611 districts in India.
The fleet consists of over 10000 vehicles on road, fleet
of refrigerated trucks, container vessels and world class
mechantronic warehousing facilities across India. Be it
flexible point-to-point distribution solutions or complex
end-to-end integrated logistics solutions or supply chain
management, Damyanti Logistics does it effectively and
reliably, and enjoys the trust of its customer base.
Considering liberalization in power sector and
recognizing business potential from the shortfall of 7
to 10 % in base load and 10 to 20 % during peak load.
The managing director of DLL, Mr. Dagar, after vetting
this business potential by various state agencies, called
for board meeting. Outlining the company's diversification
strategy, Mr. Dagar announced Damyanti Logistics foray
into power business. One of the long term director differed.
He had witnessed failure in one of earlier venture ie. foundry
business for steel product when steel market was booming.
Due to unfamiliarity to this sector and sudden fall in steel
price in indian market, the venture was abandoned. So
he had his reservations for this new venture but then
Mr. Dagar was a tough man. The director was asked to
quit. DLL was launched to take care of opportunity in
hydro power where the government was offering tax
holiday along with other subsidies.
After brain storming session of top executive of DLL
entered into an agreement with North Eastern State Power
Development Authority. DLI and NSPDA agreed to work
together on three hydroelectric power projects on
Build,Operate,Own and Transfer (BOOT) basis.
1. 67MW at Wakka HEP(Hydroelectric Power
Project) across rivers Tirap and Bogapani,near
Wakka village, Arunachal Pradesh.
2. 51MW Chasmey HEPP across rivers Anizula,
Himachal Pradesh.
3. 71MW Lilong HEPP across rivers Diaglong
in Manipur.
The owner of DLL belonged to conservative family.
For their miserly attitude and lack of experience they took
very small piece of land for power project which would
be insufficient during machine installation and
commissioning of the project. Contract for main machine
along with balance of plant was given to a MNC Malco
who began their Indian operation recently.
B. The Madras Aluminium Company Ltd. (MALCO)
MALCO is a global supplier of turnkey
electromechanical equipment and services for power plants
headquarter at Vienna, Austria, with a leading position
in the growing market of plant refurbishment. MALCO
has supplied more than 25% of the world's installed power
generation capacity. They have set the benchmark for
innovative, environmentally friendly technologies in the
world of power. Their engineers built the largest power
houses worldwide. They provided turnkey integrated power
plant solutions and associated services for a wide variety
of energy sources, including hydro, gas and coal. However
their earlier Indian operation experience was limited to
setting up few thermal power projects and one hydro power
by their overseas division taking one consortium partner
who typically happened to be Indian company to take
care of price advantage in India. In 2002 they opened
Indian subsidiary with eye on future hydro business and
on the premise that cheap labor and engineering talent
is available here. However they were having own problem
in terms of quality of manpower for their office being
set up in India and finally ended up in recruiting somehow
the targeted number following pressure from top executive
in Vienna. The main equipment required for the hydro
machines were manufactured by MALCO at their works
in Nasik, which was originally a loss making auto parts
workshop. As per agreed terms MALCO had to take about
100 number of existing worker and supervisor and 200
were added later on after getting some second hand large
machinery from their European factory.
C. TCB Tech AG
It is a leading European engineering company with
an extensive service portfolio in energy and environmental
technology. Irrespective of size of the project, customers
benefitted from the in-depth know-how and broad
experience of its team of highly qualified professionals
operating around the world.
Like other consultancy firm setting up offices in India,
TCB opened a representative office in Delhi, to provide
a complete range of services to government and private
clients in the rapidly developing hydropower sector. In
2003 TCB were contracted by a number of private clients
for small, medium and large hydropower projects across
the country.
TCB Tech AG was taken as consultant by Damyanti
Logistics Infrastructure, however in order to keep their
cost on lower side only services of civil design were taken
from TCB leaving elctro mechanical and hydro mechanical
package with original equipment manufacturer for design,
supply, erection and commissioning of the units.
D. Walk Through Project Wakka
(i) Kick off meeting between MALCO and Damyanti
Logistics Ltd.: Two month after signing of the
contract, kick off meeting was held with customer
in urgency at the behest of customer since banker
to the project were going to review project status
before they clear next phase finance and DLL
were in hurry to get that by showing site mobilization
for electro mechanical work in order to make
project visible to the inspection team. MALCO
were not prepared enough for the meeting as
they were still in search for project director and
site manager. Though they could manage some
key personnel from headquarter Vienna to attend
the meeting but were caught off the guard when
asked about their requirement from owner and
payment break up finalization. In the meeting customer
team could make them agree to mobilize site in
next 15 days in order to show something to visiting
team.
(ii) Contractual Price break up : while signing
contract, price break up was not finalized but it
was agreed that it'll be submitted in kick off meeting
which could not be done in hastily done meeting.
After six month of contract signing, first revision
of the price break up was submitted for approval
but was turned down due to no relation between
activity defined in the contract and milestone
considered for payment. Moreover, project director
wanted to gain as much in the initial phase of the
contract to improve cash flow and accordingly
price break up was made front loaded which was
not acceptable to customer who in turn suggested
new price break up which was back loaded with
more than 20 % of billable amount against
commissioning and performance guarantees.
Finalization of price break up took six more months
and till that time, MALCO were paid only ad-hoc
sum to carry on the operation.
(iii) Planning: Total duration agreed upon for one
unit power house of 67 MW was 42 month from
zero date which was six month less compared
MALCO own standard time for comparable size.
But MALCO took this as challenge in order to
book some job in India and start work. MALCO
while making master plan , considered very less
time for site work and kept more time with engineering,
procurement and manufacturing considering all
area were new and mainly due to no representation
in the proposal or planning team from site. In
good faith, customer asked MALCO to consider
duration for civil activity as well in the Master
Time Schedule(MTS) but all civil activities were
given unrealistically low time and were happy to
see that MTS has been agreed upon by customer.
There was some problem from customer side in
deciding the dam level of the project. By the time
dam level was finalized, design of underwater
parts were over by MALCO , so they asked Damyanti
Logistics to increase the contract price due to this
delay, in order to incorporate the changes which
was having direct impact on under water part
steel thickness. Customer took one month to decide
and finally agreed to increase package lump sum
price by 10 % of the original but got MALCO
agreed to complete the construction as agreed.
Comparison of earlier experience and present MTS
is a given in the annex.
(iv) Site Material Management: Material management
at site for electro mechanical work which includes
turbine, generator, transformer and other balance
of plant was in scope of MALCO. They had to
build closed and open store on land which was to
be provided by customer but no clarity was there
regarding size, development stage and numbers
of store to be provided. As per dispatch schedule,
material consignment for turbine foundation parts
and other embeddement started to reach site , but
the site store was not ready. It was not very clear
to site person who joined MALCO recently , what
to do with number of lorry carrying various machinery
getting aligned along the state road, sometime
blocking it. Site was not mobilized fully by that
time and even had no crane to unload the material
which had started to come. Some of the lorry
driver simple pushed off the package along the
road and fled since no one was listening to them
for unloading .in hurry, some local shed in the
nearby area was searched and initial material were
placed in old food storage shed which was in
dilapidated condition in village pedong 22 km
from site on semi motorable road. The matter was
taken up with customer for storage space who
ultimately obliged MALCO with four different
location spread over 30 kilometer, for the given
requirement of 10000 sqmtrs. One of the location,
despite the fact that it was near to power house,
was actually filled up soil of the muck and debris
dug out of the power house. Other three places
were not having road connection, heavy equipment
which started to come in were diverted to this
location only to experience truck getting trapped
in muck or component getting sank in the filled
up land, requiring additional resources to handle
all these emerging issue.
(v) Site Manpower Planning: MALCO being new
to India had to fill most of the vacancy fast in
order to allocate right professionals in various
department and project site. As a site head, they
recruited a person with 35 years of experience in
telecom department who had retired as regional
operation head from government sector and was
recommended by one of the Indian director for
having good liaison skills. With due to non availability
of large number of qualified personnel opting for
construction site works and in order to keep the
cost to minimum, MALCO hr planned to recruit
person from organization who were serving as
sub contractor to MALCO competitors in India.
Hr arranged for their training in Austria and China
for various traits but were not very effective. During
the execution though expatriate were not planned
for erection and commissioning of Indian project
but MALCO had to arrange expat at repeated
request of customer, since local employee were
unable to give quality output. They had to face
internal problem in getting expatriates from home
country while requesting in eleventh hour, since
many project were under execution in china and
Africa.
(vii) Design and Engineering: The basic engineering
of the power plant equipment was done by MALCO
team at Vienna but the detail engineering was
being carried out by Indian team, where the lead
expert from Austria was available. Vienna team
were there for support up to estimated working
hours but beyond that Indian team had to pay
heavy charges for additional support /clarification.
Design team had average age of 27, mostly new
recruited from campus interview assigned work
after three months training at Vienna, found it
difficult to manage the show. No. of rework use
to come up after comment from customer and in
some of the cases 9-10th revision of drawing could
be seen, each revision going through arduous cycle
of approval by customer, some of the revision
were very basic in nature. This had effect on all
downstream activity i.e. Procurement, Manufacturing
and Construction. Most of the designer were new
with few or without practical experience and were
facing problem of actual implementation which
required design tolerances. Day to day fight between
manufacturing supervisors with designer could
be noticed with manufacturing employees, bringing
the case where tolerance asked for parts were
beyond machine capability. In case of steel plate
were made with reference from European
manufacturing standard with high tolerance and
process for manufacturing, whereas the same process
was not possible with steel plate available from
Indian market. Designers were having many issue
with project managers, who used to impose their
interpretation of contract clause even on technical
area to save on cost without fully capturing the
situation and fall out of their decision which used
to be short sighted. This was evident from the fact
that on number of occasion customer. DLL rejected
their design concept and asked MALCO to strictly
follow the contract specification by words and
most natural interpretation of the contract.
(viii) Sub Contracting: Construction phase is normally
towards the end phase of execution. When construction
sub contract was getting finalized, project had a
hit of 2% of the contract value in one of the
electrical package and so a whip came from project
sponsor on contract division to cut cost by at least
10-20 % on sub contractor rate for construction,
in order to stop margin slippage. The contract
manager who had already taken budgetary offer
during proposal stage from the entire three good
vendors for this work, one year ago was finding
it difficult to bring the rate down considering the
steep hike in prices of cement, steel and other
construction consumable. None of the sub contractor
was ready to bring the price down without pruning
the scope. On recommendation of one of the director,
contract manager had to finalize new vendor which
was second grade sub contractor involved in small
work under one of these contractor, thereby saving
15 % for the project team. The said contractor
was having advantage of being customer's contractor
for some other package directly and was already
present at site for that work package.
(ix) Procurement and Vendor Management: As
MALCO were new to India, it was no established
vendor base , and were in process of developing
and evaluating vendor and supplier. In the year
2005-06, there was period of economic boom in
india. So, order book of most of the supplier in
this line of business were full, no one was ready
to listen to customers with different requirement
than the usual one, mainly where new processes
were required to be added. It was tough for procurement
manger in finalizing various contracts and so ended
up in having large number of supplier spread from
all over India, many of them doing these job type
for first time.
For generator punching, new vendor was developed
by providing process know how but they took competitors
order due to no order from MALCO for one year after
they set up their plant and when MALCO required the
relevant product, they were asked to wait for further six
month which ultimately delayed assembly of generator
at site.
One of the vendor who was asked to rework for third
time, refused to do so, asking for extra price since every
time during the fabrication he was getting verbal instruction
from different person in MALCO for some change and
it lead to total confusion resulting in component getting
rejected finally. The project manager was finding it difficult
to deal with these supplier who were going their own way.
In case of turbine spiral, a critical turbine component
where pre assembly check of part component is must,
it was decided to give the work to 6 different vendor spread
over india and so pre assembly of the final spiral as required
in quality plan was not possible resulting in asking waiver
of pre assembly from customer , which was granted after
long persuasion and with other condition.
Most of the supplier were not happy with payment
terms of MALCO which was normally 60 days after
dispatch and acceptance of the component. It was
manageable for small component but major equipment
with processing time of 2 to 3 months were having tough
time, which worsen by delay in material or drawing or
decision input from MALCO.
In case of turbine blade profile machining , it was found
after casting of the blade, that the vendor is still planning
to procure the machine required for next operation and
is not currently having them though he produced some
supplier document at the time of evaluation.
For silt monitoring device, order was placed to USA
firm, but on arrival of material found that device would
not work in Indian operating condition, particularly with
respect to power supply, environmental condition and work
environment. Indian engineering standard had not been
taken into consideration in the specification of the machine
due to which device could not be terminated at control
room, as desired.
(x) Logistics: Wakka project location itself was
sufficient to through open challenge to logistic manager.
Situated in the deep forest of Arunachal Pradesh around
40 km off the highway from Bomdilla, the nearest town,
connected with semi motorable road with nos. Of rivulet
and land slide zone on the way. Rain was most common
season in the area with almost eight month in a year
witnessing light to heavy rain with cloud burst and flash
flood followed by land slide in this mid Himalayan zone.
 The material for project which was to be transported
from all over India with oversized cargo, perishable items,
fragile component, and various other types of hard-to-
handle shipments. It had to be planed to transport most
material during non rainy season but going by other aspect
of project this was becoming difficult to manage resulting
in major dispatch during financial year closing time which
used to reach site by April - May and during this period
all major consignment moving from Bhalukpong, the
foothill town had to be accompanied by one 50 ton mobile
crane to position the trailer and to avoid road blockade
on the high way.
Route survey and trial run for transportation was done
and no major problem were highlighted in report but one
of the consignment could not cross bridge due to low height
of the bridge and its critical component had to be
dismantled from main assembly in order to pass through
bridge. Transporter were more interested in putting large
lot on big trailer rather than small trucks which was easier
to maneuver in hilly terrain.
It was common for transporter to club many
consignment load and transship it as per their convenience
creating confusion at site in not receiving half of the
component from same consignment or mixing up material
in various boxes. While investigating problem by site
personnel it came as surprise that all truck moving to this
project in Arunachal had to change truck at Guwahati in
Assam the other state, as per local practices which was
never considered before. This necessitate to open one store
yard in Guwahati and to arrange additional material
handling equipment.
Re handling always created problem since most of the
item were simply stuffed into lorry without considering
its importance or noting fragile or any other sign on the
container. It resulted in cracking of the 400 kv switchgear
insulator which were imported from Japan.
(xi) Quality: the issue of quality in construction has
gained more momentum recently as customer are adding
quality along with pricing and schedule adherence. It is
very important for contractors also to look quality not
only for enhancing their reputation in the market but to
control cost as well. MALCO is certified in ISO and
OHSAS but these certificate are not more than decorative
medal organization are interested to show to other rather
than for real work oriented quality they should have. Quality
starts with quality design and when designer themselves
are struggling for sound design practices, its difficult to
control product quality output. Some of the quality issue
faced by MALCO may be better understood by following
illustration.
Q Even after arrival of customer inspection,
materials were not ready in shop leading to
customer dissatisfaction. Many time consultant
inspector had to return or wait for week before
actual inspection.
Q Most of the cases, protocol sheets are either
being developed or non existing, so difficult
to capture the right dimension and keep them
in control resulting in problem getting identified
at later stage during construction rather than
inspection .
Q Many time there used to be fight between
quality supervisor and manufacturing guys
over some tolerance issue and designer getting
involved in all cases.
Q There were instances, where quality supervisor
had objection on product quality from supplier
but ultimately these item were dispatched to
project site without any rectification, making
the site job miserable.
Q Internal study of the manufacturing revealed
that in many cases cost of poor quality was
not getting captured properly which could
throw light on present status of the manufacturing
but the same could not be managed at site
where sub contractor, the other party, were
involved in construction work and in almost
every component, there were issue related
with supplier quality.
Q New web based ncr system was developed
which was quite robust and part of their global
system but it was hardly been followed in
Nasik factory. No root cause analysis was
getting done in real sense. At the same time
internal 5s and other quality audit reflected
everything in correct order and so top
management were under impression that all
is well, only to get surprises in the last moment
from end user and customer.
(xii) Site Construction: Right from beginning Wakka
project had many ups and down regarding opening
of the project site for electro mechanical work
package, which was under MALCO. Customer
were pressing hard to open MALCO site office
even when civil contractor were just mobilizing
site. Ultimately one of the erection sub contractor
who was also present for other package of wakak
project was selected so that he could mobilize site
in no time and one construction manager was
posted as site head from MALCO side.
Sub contractor who had other package also, was
smart enough to show mobilization for MALCO
but many time it was observed that during actual
work requirement those very worker were involved
in other package work.
Even the mobilized tools and plants which sub
contractor was counting was actually serving both
package and so facing problem when required.
Customer had called MALCO to start the job but
they had problem in giving civil front to them,
which got delayed due to late mobilization of
power house excavation contractor.
The first milestone which was for starting EOT
crane used for material handling in turbine building
got delayed and MALCO were asked to do equipment
erection by some alternate method. MALCO agreed
to arrange for high capacity ,mobile crane as alternative
in generosity but while crossing the bridge before
power house, the heavy mobile crane got overturned.
Putting the mobile crane in order became another
project for MALCO site team for 10 days, diverting
major resources for this urgent work.
They could start the foundation parts and could
concrete upto 35 % level but “EOT steel column”
required for its movement in unit way were not
ready which stopped further electromechanical
work.
Many time site construction manager of MALCO
was in loggerhead with customer site manager on
issue of client obligation like availability of front,
arrangement of more storage area due to delay in
erection but material were getting dispatched as
per original schedule.
Finally, machine and its auxiliaries were ready
for wet commissioning 13 months after initial
agreed schedule but then there was surprise from
customer that the one of the two tunnel of head
race was having acute geological problem and
have been advised by government agencies to put
it under observation for eight month.
(xiii) Site Finance: MALCO was primarily
manufacturing company and in their indian operation
also, none of the finance managers they appointed,
had any experienceof project and site work
environment , which unlike typical manufacturing
set up, require lot of flexibility in terms of
understanding various site requirement, payment
to suppliers and contractors, bond and related
issue. Site finance also require on the spot decision
many a time.
The cost controller of Wakka, a new recruit from
neighboring chemical factory in nasik was least
interested in the progress of the project but more
to procedure and process he had prepared to be
followed by fellow team members at site. Many
of these procedure were marred with practical
difficulties for site operation and were mainly
good as very tight finance control measure. If site
team had to procure any item above rs 2000, they
had to collect at least three quotation where as in
poorly developed nearby market, it was difficult
to get even one party for quotation.
On many occasion work by storage sub contractor
and erection sub contractor was stopped for
nonpayment of their running bill due to payment
pending from customer. It was difficult for small
and petty contractor to continue at site even for
one month without payment. Slowly they were
loosing whatever good skilled workmen they had
with them .
Some of the extra claim of sub contractor duly
signed by site manager were pending for 4-5 months
with headquarter due to absence of similar claim
from customer.
(xiv) Issues during execution: When site work
started, MALCO began to have problem. As per
MALCO-Damyanti Logistics contract any drilling
required for fixing MALCO supplied item was in
their scope . For fixing earth mat electrode to be
fixed were steel of 32 mm diameter 4 meter long.
As per industry practice, these hole were usually
part of civil contractor. Sub contractor of MALCO
had no means to drill 4 meter hole in hard rock.
This took month to resolve and finally civil contractor
agreed to do at extra cost to MALCO.
All system pipe required for project were to be
dispatched in prefabricated condition, to the extent
possible in order to save time and space at site.
As per standard practice of MALCO, their project
director dispatched raw pipe and fittings to site
which got rejected by customer quoting contractual
clause and initial 3 consignment were returned
back. This was taken up with top management fo
customer who finally agreed after two month on
condition of getting the pre fabrication done at
separate workshop in nearby location.
(xv) Monitoring and control: At each monthly
progress meeting which was attended by project
team and functional head, the latest issue and
their solution were discussed . It soon became
clear that the rate of progress demanded by the
contract was not achievable. MALCO , however
attributed the delay to uncertainty perceived at
his end about the project due to owner's not finalizing
the dam height and due to delay in providing
various fronts as planned but customer kept raising
issue of poor mobilization of site team, incompetent
site head, non sequential material supply along
with poor quality of the material received at site
which was taking major portion of the time of site
team.
(xvi) Present Status: what started in the beginning
of the project in big way and work pressure from
client for making the power house on fast track,
crashing various activity and contract time incurring
huge financial losses , is not having any conclusive
 end. MALCO could build power house upto
mechanical completion bt then were asked to put
it under preservation till clarification from government
body. MALCO project manager is working out to
put extra claim, customer putting them on hold
and meanwhile one of the government body set
up to analyze effect of building dam on local
environment have advised project authority to put
hold on all project lying in particular stretch of
the Himalayan zone where this project Wakka is
situated.
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 TABLE II
50-70 MW FRANSCIS T URBINE MALCO S TANDARD S CHEDULE: I MPORTANT A CTIVITY DETAIL
Fig. 1. Project Details
Fig. 2. Schedule for Damyanti Logistics Wakka 1 x 67 MW