P 80 Continuation of GIS services

P  80


Continuation of GIS Services

Having established systems & procedure, my job as chief executive ran smoothly. I undertook extensive tour of all state capitals where our GIS state leads were present. Visited Delhi, Lucknow, Chandigarh on one long trip to address  the important cable junction points of national backbone to sort out the duct changeover from back bone to intra city routing. Having experienced that , carried out a survey of southern states- Madras(Chennai), Hyderabad, Bangalore, Cochi and interacted with state CTOs and corresponding construction teams.  Undertook one special trip each to Ahmedabad & Kolkatta. One can say, though my company responsibility was limited to GIS, we literally played the role of project engineering management.  Rather my network team helped M/S KH Mankad and Vipin Jain to develop an APP for intra city routing for last mile connectivity to homes. Things were going on and more&more intra cities  &towns were getting added for telecommunication services.  At that stage, we started looking into extending the services through microwave towers. Mr Gopalan and Mr Mallikarjun were literally on us to seek land base data for tower location identification and elevation requirements etc. So the service department of my group was always on their toes.

Somewhere in middle of 2004, Mr Lalit Jalan of BSES called me for  study of extending these GIS services for BSES power distribution within Mumbai city. Myself and Milind took the help of Mr Don Carson  to develop the job specifications and scope of work for ESRI,USA. On our recommendation, BSES recruited Mr Kale for handling that project. We effectively participated in finalising that deal and the project was launched. Unfortunately, that was the time Reliance Group split into two and we could not continue to contribute our expertise.

As the split issue was family dispute, my company was in trouble and myself was in a fix! Discreetly I got in touch with MDA and VVB and they asked me to move out of company without any transfer letter. That made me to send a hand written request to ADA(Anil Ambani) to allow me to come back to industries group which he honored in couple of days. That was a great relief for me but got into an awkward situation!

It so happened, seeing our world class GIS development carried out in India, Saudhi Aramco were looking for our services and extended an invite. As I was on the move I hesitated how to convey the NO to them! But MDA intervened and  advised me to undertake that visit with a team  to Damman and Riyadh; at the same time do not commit any promises to undertake the responsibility. So a team of 6 undertook the journey and we shared our experience in developing the digital map of India and database administration + provisioning of new connections etc. The client understood our situation and thanked us making that trip.  That is how my GIS experience got wound up.  I shifted my office location from G Block to NHQ building within DAKC, waiting for some project assignment in RIL. That was sometime in the beginning of 2005.
                                                                                                               Contd......

KeyAspects :- Delegation, Incident analysis, Ups&down Surprise&shock 

P 79 Forming Reliance Digital World

P  79


Formation of Reliance Digital World

On return to India, as courtesy demanded I took the shields and certificates to MDA's office to share the pleasure and joy of company's achievements with him. He asked me one direct question!
Ramu, do you now realize your strength and values? Three years back, you said that you do not know the spelling for telecommunication but see what you have achieved!

But, with some other back ground at that time I was still morass He got annoyed and queried, what is wrong with you; why are you not enjoying the occasion? That forced me to bring out the facts about my pay scale, status in society &living conditions etc. On hearing that he was perplexed and immediately lifted the phone  and contacted  Mr V V Bhatt, that time HR chief of Reliance Corporate and enquired 'why this disparity issue have not been resolved yet! Ensure that is done today itself '.

After that when I returned to my office, there was a surprise message from VVB waiting for me!
His instruction to me was to develop a full fledged organisation chart  with responsibilities and available personnel filling various positions so as to form full fledged company for GIS services, not only for Reliance Communications but to serve others also. As my confidants were full of energy and enthusiasm, they could develop that chart and report in matter of hours on the same day. The company was formed on 1st Nov.2003 as a private company under company  law and registered.
We selected and christened it as Reliance Digital World and I was asked to head that set-up with job title Business Head. At the start, we had 48 employees spread all over India and balance manpower drawn from agencies to continue OSS /BSS services for Reliance Communication. Since it was formed under Company law, all statutory  and legal requirement formalities were established and operated as an independent set-up but within Reliance premises. So we were servicing both Reliance Communications and BSES- a power distribution company in Mumbai which was taken over by Reliance. By that time,operations were streamlined, the functioning was smooth  and our value in
GIS domain was growing day by day.

As GIS awareness and its utility functions usage in public was in early stages then, every Government department both at Delhi level and Maharashtra state level started utilizing our services for consultation. Even the local bodies like CIDCO and NMMC ((New Mumbai Municipal Corporation)used our expertise in land usage, infrastructure establishment, public gardens/park , water distribution network etc. DG Police Maharashtra used to share ideas for the city transportation network and signal establishments. Even the central Election Commission of India took our services for assembly constituency mapping and corresponding voter population statistics etc. booth wise. That took us to Education fraternity also.  PadmaSri  Dr Majumdar of Symbiosis contacted me through Mr Rajesh Mathur of ESRI,India and requested me to join the Board Of Governors for establishing a fresh curriculum named Geomatics . I was one of the person who participated in framing the syllabus and my team M/S Milind and Sanjay Shrivastava took classes on GIS at Pune.
                                                                                                                              Contd.......

Key Aspects :- Accountable, Communication, Conviction, Faith, Human relations, Initiative,
Leadership, Motivation, Recognition, Reputation, Surprise&shock Team building, Ups&down 

P 78 GIS/NE Award &Recognition

P  78

GIS/NE Award &Recognition


As the GIS/NE group developed this application and established services to both BSS/OSS, the good message spread across the world  like wild fire. We started receiving congratulatory messages from our well wishers, service providers, Ministry of Communication and from Ministry of Science &Technology. Rather I had the privilege to have  one to one meeting with the Union Minister Mr Kapil Sibal and obtained his best wishes.


The group had the honor to make two important milestones in Digital Technology -  developing digital map of India from satellite imagery that too having 1M resolution data for the important cities & towns of India and  innovatively developing an application for cable cut management, thereby reducing the communication break down time with quick restoration efforts. To recognize the company &the team, world GIS forum led by ESRI presented Reliance two awards at San Diego in August,'03.


Going to that award ceremony is a different story! As the working level management did not realize the values of those awards, told me to depute only the working team to USA, which I did. At that time none of us were  knowing that even MDA  was personally invited to grace the occasion. After a few days of that invite, he called me to his cabin  and requested me to represent him also &convey his thanks message to Dr Jack Dangermond, President & CEO of ESRI. When I expressed to him that I am not going, he was shocked &questioned me!  When I explained to him  the back ground, he took the phone, instructed the concerned that Ramu should go as honor representing Reliance as well as MDA. That made the team complete  and we proceeded. Rather me, Milind and Jaydip enjoyed the round trip halting at France (while returning)to spend few days with my sister Dr Viji  and went round Paris site seeing. Next comes the big story -turn &rise  in life
                                                                                                                         Contd.....

Key Aspects :-  Communication, Leadership, Recognition, Reputation,Surprise&shock 

P 77 GIS/NE Cable cut management

P  77

GIS/NE Cable cut management

As my NE group was looking for some opportunity, they were exchanging thoughts with the national backbone engineering&operations group about the estimated downtime &efforts required for restoration of a broken cable in remote backbone in Hi-ways. Leaders who earlier worked in BSNL/ MTNL indicated that it may take days together for  identification of the break point  and their coordinates are the main challenge and time consuming. They also added that once the spot is approximately known, then the difficulty arise for the tracing of duct and the cable/fiber pairs and characteristics-to decide whether that stretch requires a replacement or a simple joint will do. That input gave the team enough dope to dream!
Milind as top leader always ably assisted by Jaydip developed a written process and brought to me.
Myself , being an auditor by nature thoroughly scrutinized that draft  and gave some value additions.
Keeping that as start point, they wrote a flow diagram and identified what parameters in GIS database are required and what external network data and alarm contacts should trigger this application and how the overall output can be shared with the ultimate stake holder  and what inputs are essential for him to carry out the cable cut maintenance and restore ASAP.

As this team including Don& Michael were systematic in database domain generation  and accumulation of field construction data in terms of Lat/Long co-ordinates for backbone trench alignment, cable characteristics including type and number of fibers, uploading the corresponding test certificates, cable length from MCN to MCN (Nodes in back bone), where the loop provisions are made while laying the cables, color and location of duct in trenches where that cable is drawn etc. in GIS  database. All these came handy for this application development.  They interacted with operations & maintenance group  and introduced an intelligent device which can emit laser beam to travel along this cable fiber. As laser has got the specific characteristics of returning to origin itself  whenever there is break in its travelling path, that phenomenon was effectively utilized in this cable cut management application. Next came how to measure  this laser travelling distance?  With that device manufacturer they directly interacted and got introduced a counter.

With that they had all the requisite inputs available in GIS database. Thereafter, they devised  the mathematical logic and arrived at an equation. The laser beam  travel distance was co-related with the linear cable distance  in that stretch of trench taking into account all the slag and loops etc. That data was further analyzed to arrive at the trench length  and corresponding GPS coordinates. Once that application was developed , we tried that in actual field in various states. To our satisfaction, the results and accuracy factors of field execution and data collection etc. have got validated using that tool. While commissioning, wherever the operations team found attenuation of signals causing them weak, they took this team's help to investigate and rectify them in field &updated the database.

Then came the question of how to generate and issue the ticket to concerned maintenance stake holder
and what all data are essential to him. We established a link to SAP database with GIS database and developed a work order development.  End result: What it used to take several hours/ days earlier has been brought down to flat 12 minutes!! We ensured that the WO for that coordinate will identify the responsible stake holder  and help him with complete cable data and location coordinates where the break has taken place etc. The location accuracy was +/- 11Mtrs. This  discrepancy range was mostly dependent on field data accuracy what construction team furnished. But since we were providing service to customer(maybe internal only) we took that precaution.

Entire management and all stakeholders from business/ operations & maintenance were overwhelmed with this innovative application development. People took only maximum 4 hours for restoration of cable failures, which used to take days together in earlier days.
                                                                                                                     Contd....

Key Aspects :-  Accountable, Communication, Initiative, Innovation, Leadership, Opportunity,
Proactive approach, Technical issue, Team building, Recognition

P 76 GIS/NE Last mile engineering

P 76

GIS/NE Last mile Engineering
When I said that both BSS and OSS team wanted the address data base of every city that too with potential value proposition, let us look at ,what factors they were looking from business angle and services?

Business group  gave us the probable pockets in a city but were looking for arriving at the listing of potential customers, their address location, number of tenements in a building, number of storeys  etc.  When it came to OSS, they were looking for density in a building, spread area of that building, height of the building,  if feasible approach road/path data from the nearest tower pole etc.

The business group used that information for forecast and begin canvassing with would be customer.
Whereas OSS group for Last mile engineering planning wanted that information badly for arriving at cable routing, selection of the devices to be installed where Fiber to Copper cable  change over to take place etc. Keeping all these into consideration  we developed a detailed XL spread sheet.  On trial basis, we engaged two local parties in Mumbai- M/S BonAce  & PowerTec and gave them to carry  out pilot trials for data collection.  Their first output was shared with both the business group and network planning group for last mile- M/S KH Mankad & Vipin Jain. The client teams were so pleased that they jumped with joy!

Since the trial exercise was successful, we asked these two parties to go to every state and train the local agencies & asked our State GIS Leads to supervise and manage the data accumulation. That process went on and we could collect the address data for 212 cities over a period.  The selection of city for last mile engineering was prioritized by the business group inputs.  In the bargain, GIS/NE group became an intermediary for  business development and customer service provisioning.

In the process, GIS/NE server became the channel for final customer provisioning! Our Oracle expert Arunmoi with Milind and Jaydip used to face the SOS calls from every state daily that too after 7PM to rescue them and ensure bulk provisioning of service for  end customers in their cities. Though  that was causing stress and tension to the team, the leaders  used to pacify the working team members to identify the trouble in data base uploading  and sort out then&there. So that was one more feather in GIS/NE group cap!
Once this process and procedure was streamlined, the NE group could not keep quiet! Typical of Milind and Jaydip, they were looking for What next? After a few days , they came out with an idea to develop  maintenance application.  As all of them are electrical and instrument engineers, their focus fell on cable cut management! That is quite an invention and world GIS &Telecomm group appreciated  and rewarded Reliance at San Diego in 2003.
 The development of that application is dealt in next...
                                                                                                                Contd.....

Key Aspects :- Incident analysis, Initiative, Innovation, Recognition, Reputation,Responsible                                                       

P 75 GIS Network Engineering

P  75

GIS Network Engineering

In last edition , I just mentioned the term Network Engineering.  But what realistic development and some sensitive applications developed made the team as Global Champions in GIS &Network Engineering ?

During the course of Telecommunication  project progress, the management engaged international consultants like Accenture,  CapGemini... for Business database and Business Support System  and Telecordia for Operation Support system.Even they employed some specialists from Hindustan Lever. My team was feeling that there are nobody in management who noticed their GIS /NE  developments and potential to meet the challenges of BSS and OSS in telecommunication field! Typical of my Network leads, they started brooding to come out with some world class application development in GIS/NE.

They identified the requirement  for formatted address data base and need for populating them for BSS. At that time in India, we did not have standards for address data.  So, with the help of Don Carson & Indian Post&Telegraph Dept. data, they developed a standardized format for address data. Then came the challenge of how&who/which team will undertake that responsibility of data acquiring  the field data all across various cities of India. So the map wing was asked to assign unique ID for each object/ building  in every satellite image  digitized  output for every city. This challenging task  was undertaken  and the work method went on just like a newspaper printing press !

Then came the field data collection! The business group was looking for the potential business  building wise in identified pockets in a city. As at that time, mobile phone capacity & capability were not known to anybody, it was thought that this service may be picked only by affluent customers&hence identification of value potential arose.But today, even the ordinary folk in rural areas cannot live without a mobile phone! That is the beauty of Digitization revolution.

To start with, the management gave that responsibility to  M/S Mudra Communications , a group company of Reliance for data collection. That exercise became a joke! While gathering data in Hyderabad city, for potential  Rs 1 lac. worthy customer listing, they even included a mediocre barber saloon. This came to light when we were validating the data. As we could not afford with those data for network provisioning of last mile to a building , we took over that responsibility also.

 The responsibility was taken over by me under my direct supervision and Mohit Jain helped me.
We shall see how that task was executed and identification of last mile engineering progressed.

                                                                                                                                    Contd....

Key Aspects :- Incident analysis, Innovation, Recognition, Reputation, 

P 74 GIS Execution

P  74

GIS Execution
As explained, our team was about 450 personnel, most capacity drawn from agency manpower. The team responsibility was divided into wings.
One wing responsible for generating maps out of satellite imagery-both Ikonas and ISRO satellite imagery data. Ikonas was opted for the cities/towns identified by Business group and for the rest of India, Indian satellite imagery of 10 M resolution was used.  The same group was also responsible to review and approve the digitization agency output. The Basic digitization was carried out using Bently/Autocad map software.Some vendors opted for MicroStation.We accepted all the three versions. For cartographic data, basic GIS analysis, Edge matching, Geo Referencing, Planimetric Accuracy check etc. the team used Arch GIS and Erdas Imagine  and did wonders! For importing these finished product into GIS server, they utilised Arch GIS software.
Here I have to mention a few Champions name, which I can never forget in life. Rather they lifted the group's image across India  and beyond! They are: M/S Anbumani, Kumaran, Badri and Ms Bharathi.  Out of that Ms Bharathi was super champion & Badri was ready & fit for any challenge.

The other wing was lead by Milind Deshpande, ably assisted by Jaydip Gohel. Since they were all old Reliance hands, taking calls and exhibiting proactive decisions were easy for them. Somehow they felt at home though they were carrying out net work engineering first time. Their next line in hierarchy was Harshad Acharya  Sridhar Krishnan, Dhomkar..... To start with the system administrators were Prashant Kapre and Chetan Vartak. Later Kaustabh Roy and Arunmoy, an Oracle specialist managed the same. For managing the system integrity and validate the field data collection, we have posted  GIS engineers in every state capital where Network operations team were there. To name a few I remember J Dinakar at Hyderabad, Nilay Desai at Ahnedabad, Manoharan at Chennai
who were really taking care of the network development data collection in their respective domain responsibility. Since all of them were basically Instrument engineers by qualification, communication exchange was fluent. Under Don& Michael guidance, that wing used .Net and Jawa  for data base creation  and ensured data porting and integrity checks with Oracle.  Rather in process both Milind and Jaydip became champions in Oracle data base management also. Sridhar Krishnan acted as pivot in data creation and porting.

The end beauty was none in the team did have an iota of any idea about GIS ,its Software or Network engineering in beginning but in the end, they became the real backbone of Network operations. How that magic transformation took place? We shall see in next edition.  Mr Mohit Jain, a post graduate structural engineer acted as my executive assistant for coordination with all departments-both business as well as network planning. Development of Network engineering is a big story by itself &where it led us shall be addressed next.
                                                                                                                                     Contd....

Key Aspects :-  Communication, Proactive approach, Recognition, Reputation, Team building

P 73 GIS Experience

P  73

GIS Experience

On reporting at Bombay,Don felt comfortable with Reliance management set-up and the whole team
looked him with high respect. That paid rich dividend.

To start with he advised my team to carry out ultimate  service departments' interactive exchanges to list down their want list from GIS. He prepared a set of questions and issued to them to answer and then attend meetings to deliberate. He identified various segment of communication service departments and had interaction meeting with each dedicated team. From their want list, he made sure that our GIS team to note down the requisite attribute data for each service. That came out as the listing of various data attribute requirement.. Then with our Network Engineering team , he drafted the data matrix. That was the time he took classes for the  GIS/NE team regarding the database management  and how the identification of layers have to be arrived in GIS domain.

As we did not have the overall idea of data sets and listing of cities where Reliance plan to launch the communication services at that juncture,  to start with we did a make shift server sourced from Sun Systems . Don ensured that the team transported the map data and corresponding attribute listing in that server using Arch Info software. Then came the specific requirement of Network Engineering software ! As my core team members were from instrument fraternity, they had the vision and dream of instrumentation loops that too OSBL-extended to cross country. When those ideas were exchanged, Don came out with the suggestion of having services of NE from Atlanta! Then we got in touch with that management through Don and they were happy to join the game, as they were regular partners for network engineering for ESRI. They deployed Michael Crawford as the core member for  NE development,Rest is history.

As members from Reliance were from project execution, they looked for complete cross country cabling and intra city hook-ups data in system. That paved the way for identifying the requisite attributes. Don, Michael and Milind with Jaydip,Harshad Acharya listed the requisite network attributes viz: trench, duct, fibre, slicing etc. As they were all project engineering members, they furnished the detailed specification listing for each item.For the trench- the elevation, trapezium dimensions, length, breadth along with lat/long coordinates to be picked up field survey team.  When man hole and hand hole come in back bone, its location co-ordinate along with as built dimensions were picked.  During execution, it was decided to have varied number of ducts in the back bone trench depending on the route popularity with potential business traffic.In cities, depending upon city ranking in hierarchy, number of ducts of intra city varied.  When it came to cabling, not only the number of fibres data were picked but also the make/test certificates and detailed fibre characteristics data were picked and entered in data base. Then splicing details were picked.  We did not realize that the GIS team was issuing the IFC drawings to field construction team and were expecting the construction to issue the as built data. But the network planning team realized that well in advance and they were doing basic engineering(equivalent to P&I D in process plant) and gave requirements to GIS team. The whole process were stream lined and data issue and as built reporting worked like a clock work. As said earlier, we ended working for 36000 run kms back bone and 10+48+212 intra city data capture. At one stage the data volume was as high as 6 terra bytes which called for a super computer with large memory! As things were on high, everything what we wanted were sanctioned by management and we built.
                                                                                                     Contd....

Key Aspects :- Communication, Critical challenge, Incident analysis, Initiative, Multi discipline exposure, Reputation, Technical issue,Team building 

P 72 GIS Experience

P  72

GIS Experience
Having said the term 'Requirement Identification Process' , let us see what it is and how it got set-in and the process we followed.

If one goes back to GIS set-up origination in May,2000, the whole thing started at the back ground of launching Reliance Telecommunication for Mobile phone services! The management was looking for business potential mark-ups in identified zone/areas, detailed occupation of potential customers and their communication  requirement needs etc. Also there was need of mapping the National Hi-way and State Hi-way when it came to cross country back bone cabling. Business group used to bring in market survey and convey to the management the priority cities in descending order.

The listing started with Metro cities and other 6 large potential cities- termed as top 10. As  GIS team we had the task of mapping these cities in that order by digitizing the Ikonas satellite imagery for respective city and place them in overall India map  & then incorporate the Hi way co-ordinates joining them. So it virtually became drawing the India map for us. As usual, even before understanding and estimating the involved task for the top 10 cities,, there came next listing of 48 cities . So literal crowding effect took place. Later another 212 got added.

When it came to indenting the image , SI(Space Imaging) was looking for edge co-ordinates for each city in terms of Lat/Long at each corner. This was more for keeping track and accounting the supplies.Also RSR was keen to ensure the quality of shoot of the imagery before dispatch. That forced us to source complete Indian satellite imagery for entire India- exclusively to mark the boundaries of the respective cities and determine the Lat/Long of our needs. But that additional sourcing  came as handy and very useful in the end, which I shall address later. The entire GIS team including the agency staff got really charged  and functioned as well oiled machinery. Our indent to SI was getting conveyed as flash  and they responded effectively. In that loop even Antrix members cooperated very well.

That made the distribution of imagery for digitization to engaged agencies became Auto mode.

As the back bone cabling was a long drawn affair, the engineering planning group was looking for digitized Road maps urgently.  So we put another team led by Bhoyer and Badri to undertake that challenge. Using TTK maps and AAI maps, they initiated that task  and then superimposed them in Indian satellite imagery to align the lat long of contours. By that they fine tuned the alignment and we could get fairly accurate routing and cable length requirement. The end customer- National Long Distance  Backbone Planning team  were too happy with that output!

So far I have been covering only Digitization of imagery, But there is another important segment in developing GIS in general and some special aspects when it comes  to Telecommunication in particular! How we went ahead in that respect  is really a Dream! I owe my regards to Don. Michael and my Network team.                                
                                                                                                 Contd....

Key Aspects :-  Incident analysis, Planning,  Technical issue,  Team building

P 71 GIS Experience

P 71

GIS Experience contd.

Having completed the preparation of  Standards for Digitization of Ikonas imagery,  as next step, the quantification of infrastructure requirement at each agency establishment and estimated man hour for digitization of each type of imagery- Dense/Medium/Light came in picture. So as a strategy  I distributed/circulated in rotation to each party the 3 one  Sq.KM sample imagery which we brought from Denver and asked every agency to practice with respect to frozen standards /estimate the infrastructure requirements and come out with man power and man hours  consumed /Sq./km for each type.

Excepting RMSI ,ESRI and Rolta, all the other parties were too enthusiastic to be on board  &evinced keen interest. As nobody had any idea of the quantum of involved work and the time period schedule, while freezing the order scope, we did not specify the quantum and type for each party; but we froze the QA/QC conditions and the man hours for each type common to all agencies. The man hours figure were arrived based on common average reported by each party as well as Reliance internal people who attempted in the beginning. When it came to arriving the unit man hour rate, we made all the parties to agree for uniform rate and move on. Only Mr Mohan Reddy of Infotech was saying that his company was getting huge premium while undertaking US orders  but this being indigenous requirement, with reservation he will undertake on trial basis and experiment. For that he has assigned Mr S A Lakshminarayan as Project manager exclusively.  In the end Infotech was the party who did the maximum quantity and billed Rs 30 Crores ! Next in line were DSM,INCA  and Ridings and all of them were sincere till the end.

As we declared  the job as open house, there was no disparity between parties and first come gets the first available imagery- be it Dense or Medium or Light. On their submission, my internal team  carried out audit check  , approved the receipt and the party get the next imagery issued. If the audit has any remarks, that party has to take back and re-do that imagery. This cycle was smooth but I had the difficulty of sourcing the satellite imagery from Denver that too cleared by Indian authorities in time. There was no technical or procedural hitch but the process of requirement identication, freezing the edge coordinate lat/Long , SI waiting to get clear weather to pick the imagery of indented coordinates took its time.

Having  touched about imagery sourcing issue, let me narrate how I overcame that hurdle with Indian Government. Somehow I established my contacts with The Secretary-Science&Technology, Surveyor General of India, Heads of ISRO-Dr Kasturirangan and Dr Madhavan Nair and placed Reliance requirement of sourcing fine resolution satellite imagery of Ikonas from Space Imaging, Denver. As my luck was  favorable at that juncture, all of them were  expert scientist  and could appreciate the situation. With detailed deliberation, they chalked out a viable procedure to have complete check and balance of imagery import.  The traffic control was entrusted to one Mr Sampath of Antrix at Bangalore. That made Reliance relieved of tension in sourcing the imported satellite imagery from SI. Thereafter Reliance signed a comprehensive agreement with SI for US$ 1 Mn. There after the requirement identification  process set in.
                                                                                                            Contd.....

Key Aspects :- Communication, Conviction, Critical challenge, Planning, Proactive approach, Motivation 

P 70 GIS Experience

P  70

GIS Experience

When one analyse what made SM to have that doubt or worry, he was right for the following reasons:
1) Had it been to continue the digitization functions with UK establishment, how and who will identify the satellite imagery coordinates and indent to SI at USA, who will manage and clear the digitized outputs and how to transfer them to India  etc. were the moot questions
2) If they have to be brought to India for digitization, with the Govt. restrictions, how to import them?
3) Assuming that even that hurdle is overcome,  do we have the manpower and technical capability to carry out mass digitization and manage the outputs?

So all these challenges fell on my head; but my team of champions stood with me to face them.

First we  tried carrying out digitization of these three sample data with the manpower drawn from DSM, Trichy,as it had some geography and geology qualified engineers and they had some back ground experience of digitizing Indian satellite imagery. To name a few- M/S Arulmani, Kumaran, Ms Bharathi, Badri were the front end personnel. Using Microstation, they practiced to digitize Ikonas data  and gained confidence.Later they made simple QA tool to check whether all attributes are picked by the agency operator or how much miss out and how to convey the status for rework etc.
With that back ground, I initiated to convene a joint meeting of available known digitization agencies across India-Totally nine parties and asked Divyesh Mehta , procurement services head to fix the schedule and date.
I cannot forget that date Aug.9th, 2000, since that was the day Mumbai had high tension due to Bal Thackeray slated arrest for Dabhol scandal & I was afraid how the outstation parties will make to Bombay and attend! But to my pleasant surprise almost all parties made it and sharp 9.30Hrs meeting started. As KMJ was GIS specialist from ESRI India, I asked him to conduct the proceedings and derive a common process and procedure for IKONAS Imagery Digitization by various agencies. As there were 9 party reps. and Reliance functional specialists including KMJ+ procurement team, each one was dragging to their vested interest  and no semblance of coherence was there even after 9 hours marathon meeting ! When I entered to take stock of the situation things were aghast. Typical of AR, I heard each one of them and then took the call. Even as of now, I do not how I came to that conclusion of setting the process by hand picking three personnel(from three different agencies- one from Hyderabad and two from Delhi) and assigned them responsibility to draft  a detailed procedure and process ,then get it vetted/ratified by all stake holders and freeze. I never met those three before and do not know their back ground expertise but took that gamble,which paid off. The only request they made was that their man-hours will cost Reliance  Rs 1 lac. for this task. Myself and Divyesh Mehta readily agreed  and assigned the task to be completed in flat 21 days, which they complied.
Proud to share that became National Standard for Digitization of Satellite Imagery.
                                                                                                                       Contd........

Key Aspects :- Attitude, Codes&Standard, Incident analysis, Initiative,  Leadership, Team building,  Proactive approach 

P 69 GIS Execution

P 69

GIS Execution

 KMJ accompanied me to Denver and we had a warm reception by Dr RS Rao, International Sales Director, Space Imaging. Space Imaging was the company who owned and operated Ikonas satellite.
Talking about RSR, though he is from Andhra Pradesh, he had a fluent tongue in Tamil  as he has done his schooling from Ramakrishna school,North Branch, T .Nagar, Madras. He used to say that he is an Ekalaiva research student of Dr Vaidyanathan, geography professor from Andhra University.
Dr Vaidyanathan is my family friend and father of my colleague V Sridhar, who is a senior executive in Rel Jio. So I did feel comfortable while dealing with Space Imaging. Added to it, MDA has deputed Sh Thakore Sharma from our New York office with a clear directive to assist me in committing 1Mt resolution satellite imagery from Space Imaging for  $1Mn value.

 At that time,though there was ban for importing  satellite imagery into India from international agency, Reliance  management had plans to import them to UK  and get them digitized at UK and get only the digitized version to Mumbai. This ban was in picture more from the department  Survey of India rather than ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation).Also there were restrictions for making map of India. Later I took up this matter with  the Secretary, Science&Technology & ISRO as well as Surveyor General of India and convinced them technically. This opportunity gave me lead to interact with greats like Dr S Ramamurthy,that time Secretary S&T, formerly senior Research Fellow BARC, Dr Kasturi Rangan , Head of ISRO and Dr Madhavan Nair of ISRO & later with Sh Kapil Sibal, that time Science&Technology Cabinet Minister. With my convincing explanation, these greats  understood the absolute requirement of sourcing the fine resolution satellite imagery into the country  and gave permission to Reliance to import through M/S Antrix, an ISRO subsidiary at Bangalore. Their scope was limited to  monitor what all areas imagery has been sourced from Space Imaging so as to keep track.

With RSR hospitality at Denver , Reliance team went through the process of looking to the details of imagery.  We were explained that SI pick up India data once in a day at 11.30Hrs India time for obtaining Sunlit imagery quality. When Rao projected Mumbai data that too specifically Chembur and Mahul ,me being refinery project experienced that too specifically tank farm, could appreciate seeing a refinery tank cross sectional view with clear inscriptions of its tag no. size, product,volume, PESO licence no. etc. I could differentiate seeing a floating roof tank from that of a cone roof tank. I did comment that a particular tank had certain % inventory at that time etc. RSR laughed and said , international agencies source this satellite imagery for these geographical survey data only.
Then  Rao explained to us about the classification of imagery based on data density( i.e Number of objects having 1M2 area   in a Sq.KM land area) and applicable rates grouped as High, Medium and Light density. When it came to Indian City imagery, since our occupation density is considerable, any area having more than 2000 objects in a Sq. Km was considered Dense(High) & anything between 2000-1000 was considered Medium  and anything less than 1000/Sq.Km were considered Light.

At that moment, myself and Thakore Sharma became busy regarding the split between Dense,Medium and Light  and which cities of India are  of what density  and how to go about selection of city priority to arrive at $1M value. RSR was helping us in that process. When we were about to finalize and freeze the requirements tentatively, a surprise phone call came to Thakore Sharma from Sanjay Mashruwala saying not to go ahead with main order but help sourcing only samples! SM was not sure about digitization and how to go about; hence that call. So we returned with  sample data of 1 Sq KM each of Mumbai,Hyderabad and Pune( H,M,L) at that time.
                                                                                                                       Contd.....

Key Aspects :-Human relations, Incident analysis,  Technical issue,Recognition, Shock&surprise

P 68 My GIS Innings

P  68

My GIS Innings!

When we were in conceptualization state, a drama got set-in!Sometime in June-July 2000, one Mr KM Jagdish from ESRI, India landed in my office at Brindaban, Kamala mills Compound, Parel. I received him and in his presence ,the team went on discussing various strategies to move ahead .As usual I started assigning him some responsibilities, since I understood that he is joining Reliance GIS team. After completing the participation whole day, he stated"how come you are assigning me responsibilities? Rather I am supposed to head the department !" The whole team got the shock of their life.
When I questioned him- who promised you that position and gave you that commitment?, he responded saying that he is an expert in GIS from ESRI India and Dr Chandrasekhar, that time HR head for Reliance Communications(who happened to be an ex-HR member in ESRI India)have recruited him with this promise. That made me to take up with SM to resolve ASAP. SM being top management executive, he sorted out the issue then &there and closed it immediately .He  made it clear to all that AR is the leader identified by the management. Then after, there was no issue & I made my set-up as two wings- One department made responsible for digitised map generation and the other for Network engineering  including data base generation using Arc GIS software and various user application generation using GIS database.

Here it is important to mention how we went on generating maps for various cities and what factors /how we chose ESRI/NE as our partners for GIS. Reliance India Mobile system cannot forget the yeoman services of M/S Don Carson of ESRI and Michael of Network Engineer.

As all these tasks called for increase of core manpower, we recruited personnel with some map generating experience from national geographical institutions and ESRI for map portion and members from instrumentation fraternity  identified from industries. Including me, the total was enlarged to 48. We ensured to post our team member in each state where Reliance Communication was planning to serve mobile services. Over&above that ,  we have drawn manpower on temporary basis from M/S BonAce, AarveeEncon, DSM  &others totaling around 400. Somebody can wonder why such a high number was essential! Other than my core team, the new joinee in company  role included M/S Sanjay Srivastava, Ashok Taomar, Anil Chaudhary in map group , Harshad Acharya, Boyer ,SalimPatel in NE group, Prashanth Kapre for database administration.

Map Generation
Though we started our task using only TTK and AAI printed maps, I was searching for valuable inputs from small time digitisation set-ups. At that stage, just to practice  and gain an idea for attributes to be incorporated, I assigned the initial responsibility to Boyer and Badri to generate the NH routing as available in TTK maps/AAI data. Milind was supervising that generation and contributed valuable inputs for attributes to be picked. While discussing with various agencies in market, many of them told that there is a new satellite launched (IKONAS)in USA having 1 M resolution but there are restrictions in bringing that data to India. That time the available Indian satellite imagery was with 10 M resolution only.  Here the term Resolution denote the data sensitivity- i.e the smallest object that can be sensed by that satellite while picking up ground data.
When I shared  that information with MDA, he jumped with joy and packed me to Denver!
                                                                                                                        Contd......
Key Aspects:- Communication, Surprise&shock, Technical issue, 

P 67 Start of New career!

P  67

Start of New career in GIS

When he categorically stated Tele-communication, I queried asking him that I am not even aware of the spelling for telecommunication, how come you are asking me to come! His reactive response was: Ramu, you are an Instrument engineer and I am a Chemical engineer and we two have jointly executed several challenging projects; come&join we can do this also.That stopped our further exchanges and on 18th May  morning I was in Makers!

On reaching there, Sh Manoj Modi asked me to participate in video conference with M/S LHMT and Telecordia. (LHMT- Lock Heed Martin Technology and Telecordia- former Bell company). I was fish out of  water and spent days not knowing anything! After 3 days, when I contacted SM for my job assignment, he directed me to contact MDA directly;when I approached him (MDA), he said that you handle GIS. As I was not even aware nor heard about that, I asked him what is GIS? He responded saying -go to Net and find out!Then myself and Sharad Dhoke went into some computer and started searching for the term GIS. There we found that 'it is an upcoming Technology' and in India,a company by name M/S Infotech at Hyderabad are doing something related to that subject. Without wasting any further time, we two flew to Hyderabad  and called on Mr Mohan Reddy, chairman Infotech. That is the day I came to understand that GIS is about digitisation of land maps with various attributes attached to the same.(Geographical Information System). When Infotech engineers (led by Sh CR Rao)displayed some of their outputs we got an idea about that subject. We returned and I started thinking the methodology to go about .

In my typical way of operations, I thought that if I gather a group of Instrument engineers from inside Reliance , things can be developed. To my luck I bumped on Mr Milind Deshpande, an electrical engineer who has been with Reliance since Hazira project days worked under Mr SC Gupta, my close friend and colleague &later under Sh CW Joshi in material planning at Jamnagar. As I knew him from my Tulsiani days (1987) , our working relationship and understanding started with big bang. With his help we identified the team (all Instrument engineers)from various manufacturing sites of Reliance- Viz:- M/S Jaydip Gohel, Dinakar, TG Manoharan, Nilay Desai+ Mohit Jain, my confident buddy from Jamnagar. Mohit was my able assistant in OSBL Projects at Jamnagar DTA execution.He is a post graduate structural engineer by qualification ,exposed to project planning and execution.

When it came for budget estimate for the set-up, as we did not have any idea or target set point or quantum of scope, I came with a number of Rs 10 crores only! SCG only advised me to update it to Rs 25 crores(in 2000-01)and put up to management, which I did. Without any question that was cleared and we started looking forward. As none of my team members had any idea or knowledge on the job, it was lame leading the blind! But the core team (AR,MMD, JG and MJ) bonded like a well oiled  machine  and drafted an initial work plan , later Project Execution Plan.  At that stage we considered only using  Ready made Printed map for city roads published by TTK or AAI etc.for digitisation.  As things turned out, I came in touch with several small scale map digitisation agencies
who were sourcing Indian satellite imagery and carrying out the tasks as house hold business. As at that time,digitisation of maps was a banned item (for national  security reasons as well as vested control by survey agencies), the business was going on in hush hush way throughout India! But nobody was thinking of using them for GIS objective!
                                                                                                               Contd.....

Key Aspects :- Communication, Faith, Human relations, Initiative, Planning, Team building, Transfer

P 66 JMD DTA Commissioning &Transit to Infocomm

P  66

JMD  DTA Commissioning &Transit to Infocomm


One important thing to be particularly mentioned here.  The pre-commissioning team has ensured to organize  PF foam pigging of all headers in OSBL rack  thus ensuring full cleaning &smooth flow of fluids during operation. That played an important milestone  for smooth commissioning.

When it came to fire water system , Mr TRA Krishnan as Chartered Engineer carried out third party audit of entire network both in ISBL as well as in OSBL.  There were some specific punch list points when it came to protection of fin fan coolers. There were several observations about the nozzle focus, full coverage of surface area, pipe supports etc.; but all of them were cleared by utilizing field engineering services and construction to appreciate their necessity.

One challenging incident ! In FCCU plant , one specifically designed gasket at the reactor-re generator joint, which has to face around 450 Deg C heat during operation  was failing  and that really held up  FCCU commissioning. Mr A Venkataraman , as head of maintenance took personal responsibility in coordinating with the supplier factory at Madras (M/S IGP) and got the gasket replacement by special chartered air craft. Rather that has to be repeated twice before the problem was sorted out. The challenge was with respect to tempering of the gasket to meet that raise in temperature from atmospheric condition. But once that was sorted out, touch wood No issue at all and the plant is in operation for the last 17 years.

As mentioned earlier , entire DTA systems were commissioned in flat 39 months from the zero date  and Bechtel earned their credit.

Then comes my transfer/transition story!

After plants commissioning, the whole project group members were engaged in preparing the project close out, material reconciliation, contract measurements and to jot down lessons learnt etc. While I was engaged on that task, one fine day a surprise took place!

On May 17th,2000, Monday, I had some discussions with M/S Techno Fire at Mumbai  and did not go to Jamnagar. I phoned my wife at 4.30PM saying that I am with Praful and will not come home for dinner. So she knew my whereabouts at that time. After 6 PM, self and Praful closed our official discussions and retired to Flora Fountain, a Chinese restaurant in Worli Sea face. When I had my first sip of drinks, Praful got a call through his BPL module and it was from his father. His father said that Ramanathan's wife is badly looking for him and ask him to get in touch with her. Hearing that my thinking went awry and got worried. Using that hotel land line(as there was no mobile service existed at that period)I phoned home and got in touch with her under anxiety. She responded stating that MDA/Sanjay are looking for you and please contact them immediately. That made me more anxious but Praful controlled me saying that he can connect me to SM. When we got in touch with him, he responded-Nothing to worry; you better get in touch directly with MDA himself and he is available at Makers. So we dialled Makers board and he came on line within minutes.  As usual his first question was- Ramu, What are you doing and how are you busy? When I explained to him that I intend to go to Jamnagar on Tuesday morning and engaged in DTA close outs, he said-Forget it and come down to Reliance Telecommunication and meet me in Makers.
                                                                                                        Contd.....

Key Aspects :- Communication, Critical challenge, Responsible, Surprise&shock, Technical issue

P 65 JMD DTA Commissioning

P  65

JMD DTA Commissioning

No one in the company  had thought the  possibility of  such occurrence ! But the PP Business head SM Vakil posed a question to HRM - that having invested huge sum and made mechanically complete, why not we import Propylene and commission that plant? Added to that he identified two sphere availability at Porbandar for storing the imported material   and put that case to management.  Having got convinced, the management asked VVSR and me to visit Porbandar and give a report on those sphere status, CCE licence condition etc.

One fine morning, VVSR and me drove to Porbandar about 230 Kms one way to inspect and take first hand status of those spheres. It so happened that those two spheres belonged to M/S VTV only and their local team received us with warmth.  It seemed that they were built when there was LPG demand in market and they were designed for Propane storage! Then the issue cropped up. As the person handling SMPV Act regulations regularly, I asked for the vessel data sheet to look at the design condition and Relief valve setting at 55 Deg C. Then came the catch. As they were designed only for Propane, the ROV setting was 21.5 Kg/Cm2g only whereas for Propylene storage, the requirement is 22.3Kg/Cm2 g at 55 Deg C. So I gave a recommendation that those spheres cannot be used for Propylene service.

The matter did not end there! By mere coincidence, on the next Monday myself, HRM, VVBhatt, APoddar happened to travel to Jamnagar in the company plane. There HRM raised the question" since when you have become CCE?" I explained to him that since Reliance may have to utilise that temporary infrastructure  for more than six months that too at different seasons, we cannot afford to take that safety risk. He could not believe that I am so stubborn but having said safety risk, he requested me to look for some other workable solutions to receive imported Propylene and store at site. I promised him that I will come back.

After reaching site, I convened an emergency technical meeting with my team -Baumgartner,Pathak, PBM Rao, Kallol Patra and toyed with idea of importing cryogenic Propylene  in  refrigerated carriers and unload in LO LO jetty and transfer to site spheres through the heaters meant for the MTF Cryo tanks. Knowing its importance, the team analysed the pros&cons and identified an execution philosophy.  Pathak was made center  point for this task since I was to go to Israel next day. During the day, Pathak worked out all the involved steps as well as various essential pre-conditions to execute this challenge in shortest schedule.

 If we look back, some of the conditions jotted by him were imposing! e.g- The detailed engineering for this has to be issued to H&GC  on nomination and only Subhash Deshpande of Humphreys should project manage. The construction team should have the liberty to draw any piping materials from stores for which V Srdhar should be informed accordingly. We should be allowed to fabricate the sub station with structures and porta cabin for control system. We took the decision to fabricate fire water tank with the  storm spoiled tank plates.. Knowing its importance and urgency, HRM signed off the same day at 9.30PM. For info. including provisioning of temporary fire network and the requisite infrastructure and laying LTCS pipeline from LO LO jetty to MTF and hook up to main LPG line, the system was completed in flat 6 weeks and the management was surprised with the capability of this task force team. That made the commissioning of PP feasible before the refinery start-up  and the system got commissioned.                                                                    Contd.....

Key Aspects :- Conviction, Critical challenge, Delegation, Incident analysis, Multi discipline exposure, Planning, Proactive approach, Reputation, Team building 

P 64 JMD DTA Contd

P  64

JMD DTA Contd.

So far I have been narrating only my project experience and incidents faced during execution of DTA.  Now let me bring out the nuances of pre-commissioning a mega complex!

In any complex ,feed cut-in is a D day , but prior to that the entire team goes through the examination fever tension. In this case that was felt at multi direction! Let me bring out only a few cases here.
As the company was still in development phase with respect to mega complex commissioning &operations, there was no set procedure. But everyone was conscious that they are given the challenging responsibility of commissioning unit by unit.

In that cycle, first to be commissioned was cycle oil tank (for rotary equipment lubrication)near coker unit. Under PK Kapil, Sh Yadav was responsible for that task. He followed the construction completion meticulously  and ensured the testing process was complete. He handed over all the requisite document for CCE licence process to me  and was expecting the licence approval &issue by authorities in matter of hours! Though I explained to him that it will take a few days, he was impatient  and complained to PKK.  Since PKK was ED in IOC, he knew the procedure and just requested me to expedite ASAP.
As usual I went to Nagpur; submitted to the department and had a meeting with CCE himself . After going through all  documents ,he promised that the licence will be issued next day afternoon. This I conveyed to PKK next morning.

When I was hanging around in the office of CCE on the second day, a phone call came to CCE and he called  for me..  When I reached his room, he said that that incoming call was from Makers,Mumbai and  MDA was looking for me. I was cursing myself but took the call.  At the start, I tried to explain to him that the said licence shall be issued in next few hours and I have already conveyed to PKK to go ahead lining up the cycle oil tank.  But even without hearing the same, he questioned me "When are you coming back to Jamnagar?" i had the shock of my life and responded that I will reach next day and  there is  no  physical requirement for licence papers to commission. Then only he understood my position  and changed the question. He enquired me in what way I am busy with OSBL completion.  When I conveyed that I am fairly free, he asked me to get in touch with HRM and PMSP  and take over the instrumentation completion of Coker & Sulphur unit areas as there were specific issues. Then only I got relieved of my tension.

That made me once again as Instrumentation manager for a brief period. In coker plant furnaces there were specific problems with RTDs and the temperature readings were erratic. Without even checking back with Licensor and DEC, I took the call to replace them with suitable thermocouple and overcame the hurdle. The concerned Instrument engineer was Sh Bhatt  and he enjoyed the replacement task  as success rate was assured and he could face the start-up team confidently.
When it came to Sulphur plant area, Mr Sane and Mr Gangopadhyay of operations were looking for my personal service  to tune the burner assembly logic  and set right the optical sensor. In coker drum platform the issue of oscillating monitor location and tuning task were attended and smoothened out.

There was a peculiar requirement for early start of PP! As PP execution was independent of the main refinery, that plant area was mechanically ready six months before the main refinery. But that plant can get its feed stock only after FCCU commissioning and start of Propylene recovery unit.
                                                                                                                     Contd....
Key Aspects :- Accountable, Attitude, Communication, Critical challenge, Faith, Leadership,
Motivation, Reputation, Surprise&shock, Technical issue, 

P 63 JMD DTA Contd.

P 63

JMD DTA Contd.
Whatever prescribed in previous session regarding the blending tank  was feasible only if the refinery processing capacity are  of the order 3MMT/Annum or so ,whereas  in JMD , the refining capacity was of the order of 15 MMTPA right at the start in DTA days which runs at 33 MMTPA now.
With introduction of second refinery under SEZ, the processing capacity has gone to 62 MMTPA!
That forced Reliance to think of novel method.  As Reliance has got strong R&D team to back up operations,  they have developed a rugged In-Line blending system with redundant provisions.
Using the process of ratio control and Coriolis method of density and flow measurement , a fool proof recipe have been developed by in-house and that system is in vogue for the last 15 years or so.
So that has eliminated the necessity of crude blending tank


Finalization and implementation of Cryogenic double walled tank  and system for Propylene/LPG at MTF:

This is a drama by itself!To start with, after successful implementation of Hazira system for Ethylene, it was pre-decided that we will go with LGA/L&T combination for this order execution. But for techno economic consideration , there was a bid from LGE/PUNJ Lloyd also.. Mr Shivendra Kumar Of Punj Lloyd used to camp at Novotel Hotel and Mr Dimert used to represent LGA and staying in the same hotel.  As we all knew each other, we used to fool around  saying why Shivendra is still continuing in London when it is apparently clear that their bid is not going to be considered at all. But he used to repeatedly say that still he has got hope.  Even now  I am not clear what premonition made him to think so!
On one fine day, there was a message to PMSP  that this order should not go to L&T ( some back ground political reasons) and may consider LGA alone. As LGA was not keen to take the order individually(as they had internal management take over trouble), PMSP assigned me the task of brokerage between LGA and Punj Lloyd and arrange the marriage between them. As Shivendra had the premonition, he was ready to take that offer; Dimert asked for time to talk to his HO and revert.
Then he has organised Visa for Shivendra Kumar to fly to Koln and the deal was  struck favorably.
LGA appointed Mr Popmahl as their PM and Peter as his assistant..
The funniest thing was that by the time the Kick off meeting took place, LGA was taken over by a London firm - Whessoe and the PM changed.
That was the beginning for Punj Lloyd to get into tank construction and they posted Mr Garg as their PM. Utilizing that reference and experience, Punj Lloyd executed Dabhol cryogenic tanks for power plant and Dimert migrated to Houston to work for Dabhol Power.
 Only Mr Peter was the constant pivot in completing that project and from Reliance side Mr SM Pathak project managed effectively.

Here It is necessary to touch about the refrigeration compressor package capacity. for that propylene cryogenic double walled tank. As per theoretical calculation  it worked out to be 110 MT/Hr rating but PMSP wanted to limit to 65 MT/Hr only. There was a meeting attended by PMSP, me, DM and P Sankaran which went on until 1AM at Bechtel office.  There were bitter argument and without understanding the implication PS was vouching to agree for 65MT/Hr itself. At the end, PMSP used his veto power stating that he has no provision of budget  to go beyond  65MT/Hr. . But the beauty is that , before start-up PMSP with the assistance of BN brought a mini compressor knocked from Hazira and reequipped the capacity shortfall. It is necessary to note that he had the courtesy to keep me informed of that.
                                                                               Contd.....

Key Aspects :- Attitude, Communication, Conviction, Critical challenge, Delegation, Incident analysis, Innovative, Opportunity, Responsible, Surprise&shock, Technical issue, Team building

P 62 JMD DTA contd

P  62

JMD DTA Contd.
Having seen some of the offsite packages and main OSBL rack, let us look into RTF to MTF and vice versa pipe corridor.
This stretch is 16 Kms long  passing through the entire stretch of refinery  up to SH 25 and run along haul road corridor to enter MTF B/L. This pipe corridor is the life line of entire refinery operations- all the crude import or sea water intake or finished products going through marine route fall in this corridor only.. While executing this system we had a different challenge!
As there were  more than 36 lines at DTA stage itself, Bechtel could easily spread the pipes on wide sleeper and run at refinery end and along the haul road; but the challenge and objection came while crossing the State High way and Railway crossing!

Without realizing the social obligations, Bechtel wanted to go ahead with over head bridge crossing.
That was summarily rejected by authorities and said that the only option left for Reliance is to go underground. Had it been a single line, we could have got away buried. Since there were so many lines in that corridor, Bechtel opted for underground culvert option. So a beatuful culvert corridor got developed with a dedicated motor way for exclusive use of Sh Dhirubhai. This was a special request of MDA. But at that time in 1997, we thought that by not providing any flange joint or any valve on those lines, we can get away without incorporating any mitigation measures within that culvert stretch of 400 M!

No one  ever gave a thought that these pipelines are going to be live at all time  and should be in operation during the refinery's life time. During the audit 2010, one of the insurance agency highlighted that though the designer has taken the corrosion factor into account while selecting the pipe thickness , how can one be sure of its safety without any mitigation measure? That was a major shock to all concerned and very late realization Better be late than be never. So we have formed a task force to study various options to incorporate the best sensing system in that corridor and introduce manual fire suppression system. That is one of the top priority item under safety risk study..

I am not sure whether I have already covered the Mango forest story! When we acquired the land for refinery, the front portion at SH 25 land was belonging to BPCL and they were not ready to sell. They were intending to create their own oil terminal. Maybe it was their ploy to delay Reliance to go ahead with the refinery project. So leaving 100M beyond their land limit, we drew and developed our plot plan layout and proceeded with detailing and foundation digging for tanks. After an year and half, they realized the situation  and understood their plans are not feasible at all. Then they sold that to Reliance; but it was too late for us.  So that plot of land was effectively utilized to develop wide green field by planting variety of mango saplings. Now we have millions of mango trees in that stretch and we also produce mango pulp.

Having addressed the refinery offsite and pipeline stretch joining MTF to RTF, let us see some important factors in MTF (marine tank farm).  In the world, as the refinery source different variety of crude from various places, it is common practice to have one crude blending tank. What does that mean?  The sourced crude are stored in different tank; before lining up them to refinery as feed stock, operations team  used to  draw the pre-calculated volume from each tank to this blending tank and prepare the mix. Once done, that will be allowed to settle for pre-calcualted time before pumping to refinery area for processing. The blend ratio will vary depending upon the available crude characteristics and the desired production pattern of finished goods (refinery yield).
                                                                                                                    Contd....

Key Aspects :-  Accountable, Critical challenge, Incident analysis, Initiative, Lack of experience/ exposure, Proactive approach, Surprise&shock, Technical issue

P 61 JMD DTA Contd.

P  61

JMD DTA Contd.

Flare Package
While conceptualizing the flare sizing ,  no one had any idea that it will go as high as 4000MT/Hr rate!
Until that time in India,  M/S John Zink was the sole system supplier.But they could not even think of sizing the flare for this rating. That made Reliance and Bechtel to look into M/S Zeeco, an offshoot started by Mr John Zink in USA. There also, considering that there won't be a complex outage, we opted for multi riser  derrick mounted de-mountable (Foldable) type.  Then Bechtel and Zeeco  worked together  to split the HP/LP load with 3 risers  and at 400 M apart LLP  flare with 2 risers. The flare elevation came out to be 152M from ground.

Lucky for Reliance  ,Mr Rane of Petron shouldered the responsibility for the detailed engineering  and field execution of entire flare system of DTA. Touch wood, so far there is no major complaint with the flare system operations. The maintenance team have operated  and gained experience in scaling down of individual riser for inspection and maintenance.

While talking about flare system , two specific item come to my mind :
1. Outcome of hazop study recommending that  the valve handle in 84" main header has to face the earth and not the sky. This is to ensure that the accidental falling of gate in the valve should not block the flare stream.
2. Flare mains testing. There were hue and cry in the field for testing the 84" mains running on top tier of OSBL pipe rack! Hydro testing was ruled out since the pipe rack was not designed for that water load carrying. Without realizing the implications, one group was recommending for pneumatic test! As the length of these  mains was 9 Kms long, that was also ruled out.  Finally we devised a smoke test procedure and successfully carried out i.e introduce a smoking device inside and check all the weld joints with soap solution.

FM 200 system incorporation for PIBs.
 That was the time M/S Du Pont came out with FM 200 as Halon substitution for gaseous fire extinguisher system for non occupied premises and data centers.
 As JMD DTA had 33 PIB buildings having their local area control systems (Plant Interface Buildings), it was decided that we should make provisions for gaseous extinguisher system in each of them. Floating international enquiry, M/S Vijay Fire-Kidde was selected. But Reliance LP consultant(happened to be one of top official of TAC_ a statutory body) asked for one field trial and demo. before approving their system. A practical demonstration was conducted in ETP PIB and it was cleared from efficiency angle and advance warning for people evacuation lead time etc.
The contractor executed the installation in all PIBs.  Then came the big drama!

In matter of 10 days, in 7PIBs, the gas from cylinders got released even when there was no fire at all! It was mystery for projects and instrument maintenance.  After conducting a detailed investigation, it was found there was some software corruption in M/S Wormald PLC, which caused this havoc and loss! M/S Wormald was the agency who executed Fire&Gas system in whole of DTA. For info. then onward we never approved M/S Wormald make and the company has standardised with Honeywell F&G system at Jamnagar.
                                                                                             Contd.....

Key Aspects :- Critical challenge, Incident analysis, Initiative, Innovative, Lack of experience/exposure, Multi discipline exposure, Technical issue

P 60 JMD DTA Contd

P  60

JMD DTA Story continue.....

Having seen  the various attributes of water and their implementation  story, let us touch other disciplines also.

We felt the pain in executing the small bore piping for steam tracing and location of steam traps.  On principle, Engineering did not issue detailed ISO drawings for these small bore systems. So the construction group had hell in assessing the requirements to make MIN for contractors. Contractors also did not post smart supervisors on the job and every thing was left to the field fitter's efficiency.
That caused more pressure on the management  to ensure their completion. Even the construction planning group could not give the progress status and what is left to be completed!

In that quality issue also cropped up!  As the execution team did not ensure preheating the joints/ weld rods, several nipple joints weld failure were taking place in vents and drains.There were disputes and misunderstanding between inspection and construction team. Added to misery, the construction group were refusing the seal weld of  hydro test nipples covered by threaded caps. As project manager I had the responsibility of brokering peace between them and got them addressed.

When talking about OSBL piping, can you imagine the width size of main rack? While designing Hazira main rack, that time management criticized the OSBL project manager for opting 6M wide three tier rack. When it came to Jamnagar, even after taking decision to route all cooling water piping underground, the main pipe rack width came to 2 X 11 M wide &three tier rack. As the overall width became 22 M span, it forced structural engineering group to divide it into 2 spans.of 3 tiers each. Then came the issue of foundation execution and casting of rack columns  and horizontal beams.
 As the total OSBL rack was 9 Kms long having column frames at every 6 M apart that too with 4 footing foundation at each frame, the speed and issue of handling the frames were challenging!
JP ( Jeetendra Prasad) was looking for finite solution but nobody had a ready made solution. Even he went to London to discuss with Bechtel experts in rack design  but no success in getting a resolution.
So the engineering issued IFC drawings for both the alternatives-  both precast frames and cast in-situ frames and left the choice selection to OSBL Chief construction manager(JP). As the job progressed, we arrived at a solution of combination- base foundation and first frame cast in-situ  and the upper frame precast. This resolution really helped to achieve speedy progress. and produced good success rate. Just for info. The average Inch Dia, of piping on the rack was 14". and the main flare pipe dia, was 84"

Air Compressor vendor selection drama:
Dr Kini of CICB has taken for granted that the utility air compressor order will go only to M/S Elliot & he is assured of his business. But both Bechtel engineers and Reliance rotary specialist have recommended to select M/S Atlas Copco make from the power efficiency(specific Power) angle. The Project management and procurement negotiated the pricing and convened the meeting with vendors on Dec. 19th , 1996 at 9.30 PM London time.  That time was chosen because Bechtel organised X'Mas get together on that evening. PMSPrasad  asked me to return back to office after that evening function. After thorough negotiations, procurement issued LOI to M/S AtlasCopco around mid-night . Dr Kini protested immediately and phoned Bombay reporting/challenging how the order can go to somebody else. Knowing the situation,PMSP did not have any option but  to hold back the issued LOI. The drama set in immediately and PMSP had to convince MDA explaining about the Specific Power factors  issue and convinced to go with Atlas Copco only. Right next day morning by 5.30 Hours, he directed procurement AK Chowdhary to remove the hold and go ahead with Atlas Copco. Then onward, in Reliance, only Atlas Copco compressors are sourced for utility air system.
                                                                                                                   Contd.....

Key Aspects :- Accountable, Critical challenge, Delegation, Incident analysis,  Leadership,
Multi discipline exposure, Planning, Technical issue

P 59 JMD DTA contd

P  59

JMD DTA Contd..

Having touched the aspect of storm disturbance, I have to highlight a few other critical issues  that really tested Reliance at JMD!
As we had several labour camps established around the complex site area which  had about 75000 people population , their safety and living conditions was our top priority task. Without any management directive or call ,M/S SC Malhotra and Mike Alaka took the responsibility on themselves. With whatever little resources available, they gathered rain coats, food packets from colony residents and ensured distribution in each camp for three days. Rather that made Mike as hero among all labour in JMD site and revered with respect then onward. Though he was a Britisher, he had the knack to converse in broken Hindi &Gujarati.

Next comes the most important  event to narrate:
As the  work progress at MTF was about 80% completion stage, this storm really took a big strike on our establishment. Many tugs and trawlers got blown away and got beached behind Western Air command area. Many small tanks which were yet to be anchored got twisted into spiral shape! But one 92 M Dia. crude tank which was also yet to be anchored got  shifted from its foundation by 11 Meters but luckily the tank shape was intact.! There was literal panic and no one was clear what to do and how to restore the situation. Then came out the heroism of Sh Kallol Patra, who was my  contractor at Hazira but here  in Reliance  rolls under PBM Rao. He volunteered to MDA and PBMR that he has got an idea and some solution! If given 2 X 125 T crane service, he can attempt to bring back in three days. As we were all desperate, we didn't have any choice but to try his suggestion.
The beauty is that he handled the task single handed and obtained full success. The management was grateful to him  and complimented him sumptuously both in terms of cash reward & Merit certificate.

While dealing on the subject of storm and drains, let me narrate a story on drain sizing!  As nobody in the world had any prior exposure to deal with sizing the drains for these large piece of land. The controversy and argument went on criticizing me and Bechtel Central civil specialist Bob Green  that we are over sizing and at the end, each drain called for cross over bridge! People without any idea were suggesting that these width can be reduced  and bridges can be got rid off. They were not understanding the basis for drain sizing factors- either the FW discharge for that concerned area or rainfall intensity of 15 minutes down pour in that defined area.
On similar lines, we had the controversy on OWS slope and the intermediate chamber nozzle elevation! People were not able to realize that  in OWS, the discharge has to pass through gravity drains only.

When it came to valve selection  and piping execution for underground systems, the controversy is still on even after 17 years! Unfortunately, for some political reasons, the order for butterfly valves were placed on M/S TYCO- keystone make where the integrity in rubber ring to disc were not assured! In every CT commissioning or fire network charging, these rubber rings in butterfly valves gave way, choking the downstream ROs and valve passing even in closed state.

We had nightmare  while dealing with foundation/ flooring in Acid/Alkali storage and handling areas.
Especially while dealing with Hcl or diluted H2SO4, the base slab  used to blow bubbles  in spite of epoxy lining or using protective paving blocks! Only by repeated trial and error only we could get over these challenges.                                                                               Contd....

Key Aspects:-  Attitude, Codes& Standard, Communication, Conviction, Critical challenge,
Incident analysis, Initiative,  Lack of experience/exposure, Multi discipline exposure, Proactive approach, Responsible, Technical issue, 

P 58 JMD DTA Contd.

P 58

JMD DTA Contd.

As I recollect the happenings during execution of DTA infrastructure/utilities and offsite, the story goes on like Hanuman tail!

Next I plan to narrate the happenings with respect to Cooling water system

On my first entry to Bechtel London office, I had the shock! After officially getting introduced to Reliance top management team then(M/S Mike Kinny and Maurice Banniyan),as OSBL PM, they gave me to review the cooling water pump data sheet , which has to be included  in MR for floating enquiry to market. I don't know what made me to look at the head value and temperature even before looking at the pump capacity in that data sheet!  To my surprise ,Bechtel process engineer for Utilities and Offsite  has indicated that as 9.5 Kg/cm2 g whereas it should have to be of the order of 4-6 Kg/cm2 g only.. None in the group have realized  or were able to understand what could be the implication if that  pressure value has been retained as such! Every one thought that since I am not a chemical engineer by qualification and only a project manager from India, my proposition should not be considered at all.
That forced me to carry out a detailed calculation for the potential loss in energy consumption, which came to Rs 1.2 Crores/day only on cooling water transfer from CT to plant area for circulation   and return back to top of the CT.and threatened them that if they are not ready to review my suggestion, I shall write to MDA by fax and report to him. Typical of Mike Kinny, he threatened me that he will throw me from the stairs and complained to D Murali.  DM in his own style tried to convince me to keep quiet and forget; but since it was in company's long term interest, I did not relent and made Bechtel to realize the fault.  That made Tony Kerren and Pratap Patel to check the data from fundamentals and then they negotiated with me to agree for 5.1 kg/cm2 g keeping some cushion in hand.

For  information, in DTA we had 7 C Ts each having 3 X 6000 M3/Hr cooling water pumps and my check has saved 7 X 3 X 500 KW /hour power consumption=10500 KW/Hr i.e 10.5 MW/Hr. These pumps run as long as the the user plant/s  are on line.

Minor issue: While carrying out the detailing engineering, the U/G to A/G, piping group had confusion in the provision of equalizing manifold at plant B/L  and difficulty in tracing the supply line vs return line. As in those days since 3D modelling was not in vogue, the piping group had difficulty in identifying line numbers  to release Isometrics.

DTA faced one of the biggest challenge before plant commissioning.  There was an unprecedented storm of about 180 km/hr wind velocity and all wooden cooling tower internals flew away in air.  Though Reliance could claim advance Loss of Profit from insurance company,on SOS basis we had the services of M/S Paharpur Cooling Towers to re-build all the disturbed towers and restore normalcy. Fortunately that has not delayed the commissioning of main plants
                                                                                                                                    contd....

Key Aspects :- Conviction, Critical challenge, Faith. Initiative, Surprise& shock, Technical issue

P 57 JMD DTA contd.

P  57

JMD DTA Contd.

As I said earlier, my water story during DTA days continued at different angles!

On my return from Chennai, with the help of Jamnagar engg. group I got the sacrificial anode introduced at all en route manholes in that 3 X 16 Km long sea water supply lines and return brine line and got over the mess.  Afterwards we never had any problem at all and all these lines are in service without any break for the last 17 years. Touch wood!

Having touched intake sea water, let us see what all difficulties we faced in sea water storage after the filtration unit  in MTF area. As nobody has carried out the engineering and execution  of this large capacity- 10500M3/Hr. of sea water intake, Reliance was forced to go with experimenting for filtration package selection. Not to take any chance at all, Bechtel went ahead with conventional classifier arrangement and placed the turn key order on M/S UEM, a Delhi party. Though it was one man show, Mr Bhatia put his heart and soul in execution of the same. Though he faced lot of financial constraints, Reliance backed him to ensure successful completion.

As good engineering practice and to take double benefit, the team conceived the filter water pond of 6 hours water capacity as reserve and utilize the same as fire water pond for Marine tank farm FW use. Typical of fixing the quantum for Fire Water at the bottom , the raw water level was on the top. So we ended with the storage volume of more than 100000 M3. For fire water objective, we used 10 X 1000 M3/Hr pumps standardized KBL model. It so happened that in all Reliance JMD tank farm, the MVWS spray requirement for the largest dyke called for 6600M3/Hr, keeping NFPA spec. of @10.2 lpm /M2 surface area. To meet TAC condition of 150% pumping capacity, it so happened that we ended with 5 Motor and 5 Diesel everywhere. There came the catch ! As  the order was placed for standard pump  meeting sea water service conditions, we did not realize that the vertical immersion of shaft height  in the pump house built within pond can come as an issue! It fell short by 1 1/2 M and we took up with KBL for necessary rectification. As we have an excellent working relationship even up to their chairman level, Mr Sanjay Kirloskar got involved personally , took up that challenge and executed as task force. Since then we do not have any issue at all in that aspect.

While dealing with fire water pumping and network- both in tank farms/ and refinery, it is absolutely important that I should share some of the inherent problems we faced.
1. Interface engineering did not envisage the valve pit size Vs interior arrangement to make provisions for split spools to drop&re-erect butterfly valves in the valve pit
2. Provision of necessary puddle flange in valve pits were goofed up during detailed engineering.
3. To take short cuts  and to meet the committed time schedule , the construction group raising SER to go with service test instead of hydro test of mains has caused more damage than benefit. The network system was never flushed to get rid of construction debris.
4. As the sourced butterfly valve disk end rubber rings were not properly embedded, they gave way during commissioning  and that has become a bitter truth even now.
5. In DTA days, Bechtel has also missed out the provision of flushing connection for under ground fire water network.                                                                           Contd......

Key Aspects :-Attitude, Codes& Standard, Critical challenge, Faith, Incident analysis, Technical issue 

P 56 JMD DTA Contd.

P  56

JMD DTA Contd.

When the MTF and Utility operations took over and attempted to commission, we were getting water fountains at all places and every one started blaming me. Rather it went to that extent , the management got the inputs suspecting my integrity! They all thought that I have colluded with the contractor and overlooked the job.  So keeping me out, the site construction management formed emergency task force. I was cursing my luck and fate.Their set task was to send people inside with brooms and torches and mark the holidays wherever observed. As the line size was 42" Dia., people movement was easy &flexible and they completed this update inspection as well as rectification in 28 days for all the three lines. By that time it was Oct./Nov.'99 and every one was under extreme pressure with time constraint.

Then came the chaos! When they restarted the system, once again the fountains were there. Though it was set back for commissioning, as an individual I got relieved from my mental tensions. Then only people understood my position and some people even came to the extent of consoling me.Sh MDA understood the seriousness of the situation- sea water transportation is life-line for the refinery operations; Immediately he called up his classmate Sh Raju Narayanan and sought his emergency attention. For info. Raju after his chem. engineering degree at UDCT, migrated to London, specialized in underground service and corrosion technology.

Raju Narayanan & Bechtel's corrosion specialist Trevor Osborne  landed in Jamnagar on Dec. 17th 1999. This day has some importance in my life as well, which will be disclosed as the flow goes. The team from UK came to site directly after lunch and I was asked to receive them at MTF.  On reaching MTF limits, even from a distance of 50 M , Raju uttered to me in chaste Tamil saying " Ramanathan, nobody can help the situation: It is the blunder of basic engineering  ; that people have not cared to notice the electrolysis effect  of valve shaft nobel metal with that of CS pipe internal lining be it cement lining or enamel coating." No inspection or holiday check can solve the issue for ever. Then ,as reaction , I questioned him, are there no solution at all for this impasse.  He asked me the details about the agency and contractor who has undertaken this coating contract.   As soon as I mentioned the name PSL, he asked me to call  Ahuja  to have direct talks. As Raju is in marine corrosion study business, he was aware that PSL deal with sacrificial anode also. He made Ahuja to talk to their Kandla factory and enquire the stock availability of sacrificial anodes and its type with dimensions. Things worked in lightning speed. Then the whole team moved to Desalination module area in utilities block. There M/S Sinhal, RM Shah and PB Patel received us and  they started narrating their bitter experience. Raju asked them to demonstrate the water movement in that local manifold. Things were no different from that of MTF end. That made Raju to come to firm conclusion. Once Ahuja got the input data from Kandla by fax, Raju generated  a hand sketch for suspending this sacrificial anode from the 42" dia. pipe manhole at every 250 M apart. By the time all these were over, it was 7.30 PM and we came to my office to wind up the day. Then came the bad news phone call from my wife at 7.45 PM- stating my mother has breathed her last at 7.25 PM at Chennai and rush back. Raju only controlled my grief and escorted me to guest house for moving to Chennai via. Ahmedabad that night.                                                                                                                                                                                               Contd......

Key Aspects :-Communication, Critical challenge, Human relations, Incidence analysis, Initiative,
Lack of experience/exposure, Surprise&shock, Reputation, Ups&down