Meet the engineers who helped shape the Dwarka Expressway project
L&T project director Tanmay Chatterjee (52) has spent the last five years giving shape to the Dwarka expressway.
3 min read
The project was based on the EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) model, which gives the private agency complete liberty to plan, design and construct -- and in this case, to improvise. (PTI Photo)Pulling off a 14-15 hour work day, managing a team of 300-400 engineers and over 3,000 labourers: L&T project director Tanmay Chatterjee (52) has spent the last five years giving shape to the Dwarka expressway. Despite hurdles in the form of Covid 19 and pollution norms, hindering work for days on end, he said he never had a flicker of doubt about the project.
“The biggest challenge was when the pandemic struck. Work nearly came to a standstill… labourers left and people were even falling sick, but we never stopped paying their salaries. It was extremely challenging to find labourers and bring them back. I had to keep the team motivated when hindrances came our way,” said Chatterjee, who lives in Delhi and has been in the profession for 33 years.
When a debate was being waged on vertical support structures for bridges, Chatterjee said they took on the challenge to build single-pier bridges, making the expressway the first 8-lane elevated road constructed on a ‘single pier’.
The project was based on the EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) model, which gives the private agency complete liberty to plan, design and construct — and in this case, to improvise. “Originally, the contract said a two-pier structure, which we deviated from,” said Chatterjee.
Amogh Garg, a 27-year-old engineer who was overseeing work on package 4 — Basai railway overbridge to Kherki Daula — for the last 1.5 years, pointed out that the project has a lot of firsts: It has one of the widest railway-over-bridges in India with 16 lanes as well as one of the longest ‘Bow Spring Steel Bridge’ that’s 125 metres long.
Garg was in charge of a team of 30 working on a 600-metre underpass and three subways. “We had to go below the soil level, around 12 metres below the ground, which was the most demanding task. It is difficult to control the soil and there were times when we burst open gas pipelines that went underground. We braved rainy seasons and runny soil while racing against time. But it is rewarding as we achieved a project which is a revolution in engineering,” he added.
For Naresh Punia (32), a site engineer with the NHAI, the most gruelling aspect was removing the permanent structures. “When we started, we had to clear structures on the land; this included shifting electric lines, towers and buildings. Even now, a few problems regarding land persist,” he said.
He said he has been a part of the project since its pre-construction stage in 2019.
Kuldeep Mahabal (32), also a site engineer with the NHAI who worked on the project as a quality control engineer from 2019 to 2023, reserved praise for the labourers. “They have put in more work than any other workforce — they toiled day and night, right from the casting of parts, transporting them to the site, and erecting piers according to the drawing.”
Mahabal, originally from Palwal, said he was in charge of testing, field testing and sample testing. “My job involved checking the soil, ascertaining if it checks all the prerequisites like quality, aggregate temperature, the temperature during mixing and compaction, the temperature of the mix, and more. We have seen the project take shape, and being there during the inauguration was special,” he said.
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