Infrastructure Projects - Think Big, start small
Do we think on these lines when we venture out to invest in infrastructure projects? Perhaps not, which is why our ports, highways, logistics and other essential services facilities are not able to cater to the increasing demand of a fast growing ...
By Sajith Sreedharan
Do we think on these lines when we venture out to invest in infrastructure projects? Perhaps not, which is why our ports, highways, logistics and other essential services facilities are not able to cater to the increasing demand of a fast growing economy. But is this possible? Yes. Quality time spent during the initial stages of a project on effective planning and execution and stress on minimum maintenance needs can work wonders in the creation of a world-class facility free of bottlenecks, constraints, and performance issues.
There are several major issues that a developer needs look into while planning a development such as:
Do we think on these lines when we venture out to invest in infrastructure projects? Perhaps not, which is why our ports, highways, logistics and other essential services facilities are not able to cater to the increasing demand of a fast growing economy. But is this possible? Yes. Quality time spent during the initial stages of a project on effective planning and execution and stress on minimum maintenance needs can work wonders in the creation of a world-class facility free of bottlenecks, constraints, and performance issues.
There are several major issues that a developer needs look into while planning a development such as:
��� What is it that I want to achieve in 25 or so years?
��� A realistic traffic assessment
��� The land bank required for the ultimate phase
��� Environmental and social issues
��� The approval processes
��� A cost effective construction process that delivers value for capex (this is not necessarily the same as the ���cheapest capex���)
��� Minimum whole life operational costs
��� And last but not the least, a low maintenance facility (very important)
A vision of the scale of the ultimate development is a must prior to the start of any development plan. A realistic traffic assessment is what one needs to start with before we put any views on paper. As most of the foreseeable developments are long term, the next step would be to see how much would a 25-year horizon look like in terms of cargo growth, traffic generated, etc. This then leads to the connectivity issues, and then on to the land bank required for such a development.
Once we have defined the broad guidelines, a master plan is developed with a specific stress on phase wise development (THINK BIG, START SMALL) thereby mitigating the risks that a developer faces in terms of development costs. Cost-effective construction (both in terms of capex and opex) and low maintenance costs ensure the completion and start of a facility which can cater to the demands of our nation, which is growing at a much faster pace than the rate in which we are able to develop infrastructure.
Of course, the approval process is one which we should not forget as there are a lot of criteria that could possibly restrict or even stop a development. Sometimes these issues are overlooked only to strike at the fag end of a project. While it is good to have a uniform set of guidelines for the approval process, the government should be flexible in its approach to specific investment and development initiatives, as each project comes with its own set of issues and constraints.
Finally a word on maintenance, perhaps the most neglected part and possibly the phase where a developer loses his advantage in terms of everything that was going for him up to the completion of development.
At BMT Consultants India, we have constantly tried to excel in whatever we are involved in and have been successful to a large extent in terms of getting our views accepted by the end user. While it is extremely difficult to have 100% satisfied clients for reasons that are best forgotten, we have achieved technical excellence under difficult timelines. My personal call to consultants is if they can come together and say that we are not going to force fit the quality of our report into the available budget I would say we have achieved 50% of what we wish to leave behind for our children to appreciate.
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While these views are my personal, I am sure there are many people out there who would agree with what I am saying, but are constrained by the circumstances in which they work. I leave it to the readers to decide how we shape the future of our nation. Think Big, start small ��� it is a collective effort.(The author is the Director of BMT Consultants India)
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