The Untold Story of Konkan Railway

Project Management is a discipline of planning, organizing, motivating, controlling resources to achieve specific goals. The presentation tell you about "Konkan Railway Project" undertaken by Indian government. It in details tells you about the challenges faced, problems occurred, Risk involved, new technology used and many other details.

1. The Untold Story
of
Konkan Railway

2. Background
19
th
July’ 1990 – 26
th
January’ 1998
760 Km railway line connecting Bombay(Roha) to Managalore
(Thokur)
1,998 bridges(179 Major & 1,819 Minor)
93 tunnels with aggregating length of 83.5 Km
Dream project of Mr.George Fernandez
Konkan Railway
Chithoni & Bogha railway bridge
States – Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka & Kerala
Bombay to Mangalore – 2,041 Km (41 hours)
Bombay to Mangalore – 914 Km (15 hours)
CMD – Mr. E Sreedharan

3. 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 conception
Concept of Roll on Roll off (RORO)
Truck drivers find it extremely difficult to drive loaded
trucks through Ghats, undulating surfaces, narrow roads
and poor road and weather conditions
Saving of fuels, decrease in wear and tear of Lorries
(trucks), relief to drivers of driving in extreme conditions,
can reach faster to destination which leads to saving in
travel time and money
Project will boost to the economy of country

4. Project definition
Four state governments have joined hands with the
central government to begin a project of this size.
Konkan Railway project is a highly viable project,
financially very attractive, because it reduces distance
between Bombay & Mangalore considerably. The normal
haulage distance between Bombay & Mangalore was
2041 km. After the construction of this project, it would
be 914 km
The project cost, initially estimated at Rs.860 crore, has
increased by over four times. The project cost has been
estimated at Rs.2,780 crore, with the funding cost alone
being Rs.550 crore

Q1. In the case study given identity the success or failure of
the following processes – Project conception, Project
definition, Project planning, Project launch & execution?

5. Project planning
take approval from Planning Commission, central
government and the beneficiary state Government
(Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, and Kerala).
The whole project was decided to complete in five years’
time.
They planned that the whole railway line would be
divided into 7 zones, each zone concurrent with a
revenue district, and a Chief Engineer was posted for each
zone.
They selected contractors only from the pre-qualified list

Q1. In the case study given identity the success or failure of
the following processes – Project conception, Project
definition, Project planning, Project launch & execution?

6. Project launch & execution
The project was estimated to complete in 5 years’ time,
ultimately took 7 years for completion
The main reason one was government’s own action. There
was controversy regard to the Goa government and the
work was stopped by the government. The second was
finance
Three-fourths of the project funds had to be raised in the
market. The expectations were that we could raise the
money from the internal market through bonds, either
tax-free bonds or taxable bonds
Unexpected adverse geological conditions in some of the
tunnels

Q1. In the case study given identity the success or failure of
the following processes – Project conception, Project
definition, Project planning, Project launch & execution?

7. Q2. Identify all the important stakeholders?
Central Govt.
Planning commission
Finance ministry
Railway ministry
State Govt.
Maharashtra
Goa
Karnataka
Kerala
Landowners, Contractors, Investors, Engineers
Chief secretary & Transport secretary of Bangalore & Kerala
All the above stakeholders were important for making Konkan Rail project
successful, especially contractors, landowners & consent of all higher
government authorities of all four states. Without stakeholders,
project wouldn’t be successful. In every project whether it is smaller or
big, project stakeholder play a very important role.

8. Q3. The success of a project depends largely on the success of
the contractor. What steps were taken to ensure the success of
the contractor?
Contractors were selected from pre-qualified list
Decision making by the contractors had to be approved by the
higher authority.
Payment made to contractors
Mobilization of advances
There need to be a good communication between the
contractors and superiors
Fuel availability on site
Import of sophisticated equipment
Incentives of completion of work

9. Q4. What do you think were the areas of risk? How were the
risks managed / mismanaged?
Risk Managed / Mismanaged
Disapproval/resistance from
beneficiary state govt.
This risk was managed by Mr. George Fernandes & Mr. E
Sreedharan by taking serious talks to the heads of the
state and making them believe the benefits that can be
derived from this project. Bureaucratic approach was
taken to solve this problem.
Budget for the project The budget derived to railway project in India was around
Rs.250 to Rs.300 crores and already 20 – 25 new railway
projects were on going. This was a serious problem
because then it would take 25-30 years for completion of
the project. The govt. also issued tax free bonds but it was
a failure due to share market scam. At last only choice
was External Commercial Borrowing (ECB) through which
the govt. was able to raise Rs.400 crore.
Janata Dal party collapsed Konkan Railway project was undertaken under Janata Dal
party. Within a week after Mr. E Sreedharan was
appointed as CMD, the party fell and Mr. George
Fernandez was no more the railway minister.

10. Difficulty in acquiring land For the project, the govt. had to acquire land from 40,000 landowners.
This was a major problem as people would resist from selling their
land. A new strategy was developed to tackle this problem.
Landowners were given compensation for the land as well as rental
charges for 1 to 1 ½ years till they are ready with their new house.
Difficulty in making 760 Km lineConstructing 760 Km railway line would take many years and huge
cost. But this was reduced by adopting a new strategy where in
Konkan line was divided in 7 zones and construction was started at
each zone at the same time. By this the time as well as cost of the
project was reduced.
Risk of contractors Many times in construction project, the risk of incomplete work from
the side of contractor is very high. This risk was managed by giving
contract only to recognized, pre-qualified contractors who have
adequate cash flow.
Political Interference In a cross state construction project, many times there is government
interference. This problem aroused when GOI stopped work in Goa
sector for 9 months. There was no solution to this had a terrible effect
on the rest of the project.
Q4. What do you think were the areas of risk? How were the
risks managed / mismanaged?

11. Difficult geological conditionsThe project only had 5 years’ time. In this time, all kinds of survey,
clearance, and geological inspection had to be done. Tunnels needed
geo-technical investigations, but there was no time. Accidents took
place while excavating tunnels in mountains. This delayed the project.

Environment impact While some people thought that the project was economically
beneficial, some environmental groups raised questions 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.
Q4. What do you think were the areas of risk? How were the
risks managed / mismanaged?

12. Q5. Identify the areas of good communication or the lack of it?
It was very important for the people who are involved in this
project to communicate with each other for the completion of
the project.
Hired DOT lines and then established a good communication
network with the headquarters of each of the Chief Engineers.
They were all given FAX machines, they were all given
computers. A computer networking was done, so that
everybody can have any information he wants from anywhere
and message can be passed on time.
Mr. E Sreedharan 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. So that there is no
difficulty at all for the progress of the work.
Every Monday, Mr. E Sreedharan had a meeting with the Head
of Departments, where all the problems connected with the
whole project were discussed

13. Q7. What were the new technologies used in Konkan Railway
project?
Optical fibre cable
First time in the history of Indian Railway, Optical fibre cable was
used in Tele-communication network. At 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 Indian railway
system, the konkan railway has the longest stretch of optical
fibre cable.

14. Incremental launching method
This is a new technology used for the 1
st
time in India (same
technology was used in Delhi Metro). Incremental launch is a
method of building a complete bridge deck from one end to
other end.
Q7. What were the new technologies used in Konkan Railway
project?

15. Ballast less track
A disadvantage of traditional track structures is heavy demand
for maintenance which leads to heavy maintenance cost.
This can be overcome by using ballastless track.
Q7. What were the new technologies used in Konkan Railway
project?

16. Gas pressure welding
A new technology of gas pressure welding came from foreign
countries was used. People were trained for this technology
in Japan. The advantage of gas pressure welding is that it
can be done at the site itself. Traditional welding methods
can only be done in welding shops. And it was a problem to
get the welded railing to the site again.
Q7. What were the new technologies used in Konkan Railway
project?