Sammaan’s Technical Workstream

There has been much written about the hardware tendering process that Project Sammaan has been engaged in with both the Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) and Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) over the past year.

I work for Arkitechno Consultants and am part of the technical team of engineers on the project. As such, work broadly on two significant workstreams:

1) Interface with the government to prepare the necessary paperwork to facilitate the release of tenders while addressing any technical questions they may have

2) Review the architectural drawings for the facilities to ensure that they meet government standards and are approved prior to construction

Currently, the Arkitechno team is engaged in making the final push prior to the release of all tenders in both Bhubaneswar and Cuttack. My responsibilities in Bhubaneswar are to assist the Junior Engineer at the BMC in checking the Community Toilet Tender BoQs (Rates & Quantities of 6 Consolidated packages); in Cuttack, my time is spent following up and liaising with the Public Health Department to answer pending questions prior to them granting the technical sanction of the city’s Community Toilets. For the former, the sooner the checking of BoQs are complete, the sooner the file can be moved to Executive Engineer and City Engineer for their consent.  This process will help the team maintain project timelines (i.e., have all tenders released by January 31st, 2014).

The most pressing challenges we’re facing are two-fold: navigating the complex structure of the local and state government bodies while adhering to stringent timelines, and ensuring that any and all documents requested by the government are provided in a timely manner. These challenges can be resolved by regular, face-to-face interactions with Govt Officials to elucidate the importance of this project and the timeframe set by funding agency, and by appealing to project associates, particularly the architects and designers, to provide error-free designs and drawings.

In thinking about the work I have done on this project, I am most proud of the relationships I have forged with the government’s Junior Engineers and the speed in which we collectively have been able to create the required tender documents to satisfy the government’s strict requirements.

Looking forward, my tasks will largely revolve around continuing to  follow up with BMC and CMC on technical issues to ensure the tenders are released as soon as possible. Hopefully once this milestone is reached, Arkitechno will continue on Project Sammaan as the project managers overseeing the construction of all 119 facilities.