Facets of Divine Construction - Swami's Style of Project Management

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Facets of Divine Construction - Swami's Style of Project Management

by A. Ramakrishna, President Operations & Deputy Managing Director, Larsen & Toubro Ltd.

Through timely execution of projects with speed and uncompromising quality,

Larsen & Toubro has been able to contribute to some outstanding and award

winning works, undertaken by Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust, under the unique

guidance of Bhagawan Sathya Sai Baba himself. In the process, Larsen & Toubro

has had the privilege of experiencing certain aspects of project management and

construction management, which can be followed by other projects.

The super speciality hospital at Puttaparthi (Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher

Medical Sciences) came up in an unbelievably short time. In just eight months,

the hospital moved from commencement of construction to conducting cardiac

operations! Wonder-struck, people started asking how it was possible that a

magnificent hospital with so many modern facilities and services could be

completed in such a short time and at such a low cost. The answer simply lies

in Swamiji's unique style of project execution.

In fact, in most cases a new project is announced by Swami on a particular

Birthday. Almost invariably, the project is inaugurated on his next birthday or

earlier on a festive occasion. This brings in a sense of wonder even among

professionals. Before our company got involved in Sri Sathya Sai projects, we

had the reputation of constructing and completing projects at a fast pace,

comparable to internationally accepted targets. While we might have achieved

wonders by completing other projects, fast elsewhere, in the case of Sri Sathya

Sai projects, Swami seemed to have performed miracles through us. A few

highlights are given below to bring out the essential reasons which contribute

to making Sri Sathya Sai projects far better in all aspects - architecture,

engineering and design, contract settlement, agency selection, quality control,

cost control, project management and monitoring, and time of completion.

Not the least of these positive factors is the commitment of people involved in

the project and the general happiness and satisfaction that prevails at the end

of the project. It is hoped that this would provide pointers for similar

projects elsewhere in the country.

Architecture

In all the projects which Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba has taken up, he gives

prime importance to aesthetics and architecture right from the beginning as

well as through the entire construction phase. Quite often, He asks specialist

architects to prepare drawings and a perspective view or a model. He then

suggests modifications which the architect could incorporate. In many cases the

hints given by Swami help shape the building to be quite different and

aesthetically pleasing, compared to similar projects conceived by others.

Baba has quite often commented that a flat roof structure is like a headless man

and always introduced either a dome or some feature including sthapati and

ornamentation work to make the building come alive and inspiring to those who

work on the project or live in the building. People may wonder whether he

insists on vaastu shastra as per the tradition. To our surprise he never

insisted even though he has commended vaastu shastra as appropriate for the

time for which it was conceived and the basic concepts are no different even

today. But he has always given importance to functionality, simplicity and use

of modern sciences without any dogmatic approach to vaastu shastra or other

practices as in some parts of the country.

Engineering and Design

Economy in use of materials and knowledge of modern techniques are given

importance. Swami has always made sure that the architecture and engineering

design go hand-in-hand and there are no conflicts in realising the ultimate

goal of an outstanding building. Through the experience of our many engineers

associated with Sri Sathya Sai projects, it is a wonder that he used to point

out certain technical aspects which have to be taken note of or details

modified at the appropriate time even to those experts who might miss such

important points. This confirms the belief of many followers that his knowledge

of science is extraordinary, unfathomable and unbelievable.

Estimates

When the design and engineering are approved in principle, an estimate is

prepared in such a way that the total cost of the project is much lower than a

conventionally accepted thumb rule would suggest. The estimates are gone

through in great detail by members of the Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust who give

an independent opinion on how the costs can be further reduced or controlled.

These inputs ultimately are taken by the agency to bring in maximum economy in

terms of cost of materials, labour, construction methods and thus overall

project cost. In this effort Trust personnel is able to talk to suppliers of

major materials and often gets concessional prices or sometimes even free

supplies of materials. Efforts are made to get the necessary approvals quickly

from Government to save levies like excise duty, sales tax, etc. All these

efforts are made in a very short time, so that the lowest benchmark price is

achieved right in the beginning of the project to enable monitoring and

control of the final total project cost.

Selecting the Agencies for Construction

In the Government or even in big corporations, agencies are selected primarily

based on initial low bid and not on lifetime total cost of a project. The

process involved in such tenders, especially in Government, is so long that

precious time is lost and in the meantime, due to inflation, prices go up and

the ultimate cost of the project is nowhere near the initial estimates. This is

totally avoided in the case of Sri Sathya Sai projects by selecting the right

agency on the basis of past experience and the requirement to entrust the job

to that agency, which has shown commitment to perform in short time against

odds. After this a genuine effort is made to cut down costs as much as possible

without sacrificing neither quality nor time.

In the light of the nature of "service jobs taken up for the general good", the

purity of the purpose involves that there is an automatic interest in all

concerned agencies to offer the lowest price possible. While the contract is

settled on such a basis, the Trust keeps enough leeway to make changes and

adjust the overall project cost from considerations of economy and changes that

may come about as a result of the detailed project design. Entrusting the work

to a single agency with overall responsibility ensures that there is unity of

purpose and commitment to complete the job within the time frame and cost limit

without sacrificing quality.

The examples on the following pages ("Facets of Divine Construction") highlight

some of the aspects of project management, which ultimately resulted in high

quality buildings and projects which won international awards and were

acclaimed all round as they all represent high aesthetics, unbelievably low

cost and extremely short completion time.

There are many instances where critical hurdles, which would normally have been

intractable, were swept away as though by a divine hand. Essentially, as Swami

himself described, it is the unity, purity and divinity which help projects

move rapidly from concept to reality. And that is exactly our experience at

Larsen and Toubro.

COLLECTION: PREETHAM SAI P.V.

MANGALORE,INDIA.