Project
Management...The Iridium Experience
Iridium is a global
personal telecommunication project initiated by
Motorola, the American Telecom and Electronics giant,
on an global basis alongwith local partners in 12
different countries. The earth station is called the
Gateway. Construction of the Gateway is therefore
amongst the most critical critical activities of the
entire project. the Gateway in India would be the
vital link in the entire region between the Gulf and
the Philippines. the date for commissioning the
project on a global basis was fixed well in advance,
before even commencing work at the ground level in
Dighi, Pune.
A consortium lead by
Motorola and a team of Indian Companies / Investors
such as VSNL, IDBI etc. were to implement the Iridium
Gateway Project in India in Dighi, near Pune.
Sharad
Constructions was selected as the Civil
Contractor and the Construction Manager.
This
placed the responsibility of..
- Co-ordinating the
schedules of Civil, Electrical, Fire Fighting
Systems, A.C and Building Automation Systems,
Access Control System Contractors to provide
continuity of work.
- Adjusting the
civil schedule to allow for the working
requirements of other contractors.
- Provide support
to other contractors required form Civil
Execution Point of view.
- Provide
uninterrupted water and power supply at site
to whoever requires it.
- Detailed
co-ordination at the final stage to plan,
follow through and implement schedules on a
Room-to-Room and a Wall-to-Wall basis.
Project was to be
executed on a very tight schedule an involved
finishes of a very high standard. We ourselves placed
orders on 23 separate agencies and suppliers. Project
monitoring was carried out with a On Site Computer
Using Computrised Project Management Software (MS
Project). Separate engineers were allocated for
co-ordinating and progress monitoring. The project
was closely monitored by Motorola's Project
Management Team as well. Despite having to
co-ordinate the work of 5 contractors and 5
consultants, the job was completed well within the
scheduled time. All intermediate milestone were met
and successfully cleared. Sharad's role was specially
appreciated by the Client (Iridium), Motorola and the
Project Consultants as well.
