Tata Projects CEO calls for stricter quality standards amid infrastructure push

Tata Projects CEO and MD Vinayak Pai.

The infrastructure sector is vital to India becoming a $5-trillion economy but the recent mishaps, which have caused loss of life and property, have raised alarm over the quality of work, highlighting the need for stringent industry-wide standards.

Tata Projects managing director and chief executive officer (CEO) Vinayak Pai, advocates a two-pronged solution — stricter eligibility criteria for bids and increased accountability — to minimise these reverses.

“There are a lot of leading indicators which are very important. At Tata Projects, we track and control our leading indicators. The industry should focus on of course the lagging but also the leading indicators, which I think is missing,” Pai told Moneycontrol in an interview on July 10.

Leading and lagging indicators are metrics that inform infrastructure companies if they are on track to meet their safety goals and objectives.

His suggestions came on the day when another bridge collapsed in Bihar, the thirteenth such incident in three weeks. Late in June, a taxi driver was killed when the canopy of Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport collapsed following record rain. The busy Terminal 1 remains closed. Similar reports have come on from other parts of the country as well.

Tata Projects, the privately held engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) arm of the Tata Group, has been a part of landmark infrastructure projects like the new parliament building, Prayagraj Airport Terminal and Mumbai Trans Harbour Link.

"Globally, there are standards and benchmarks on lost time, incident frequencies, and fatality rates that are used as a comparison. In India, we try to compare ourselves with the global average but there is no there is no accountability or there is no standard under which to compare, which is unique to India," Pai said.

Safety leading indicators are measures that quantify prevention efforts and can be observed and recorded before an injury happens. Safety lagging indicators are reactive — they only track negative outcomes like noting an injury once it has happened.

Pai said India needs to have accountability in place at every stage of the design, construction and maintenance of infrastructure projects to ensure higher safety and quality standards.

The government should also start tracking the safety records of contractors to ensure that projects of high importance are not awarded to those with a bad rating.

"If there is an accident, what are the consequences? It comes in the press for a couple of days. India needs to have benchmarks established to ensure that the contractors are not repeat offenders," Pai said.

The government and the industry should start tracking “leading indicators” for safety and not just the “lagging indicators” once an accident has happened, he said.

Stringent qualification criterion

"Projects should be awarded on a combination of quality assessment and cost assessment," Pai said.

The quality of India’s infrastructure is often called into question, as Moneycontrol has been writing in its In Bad Shape series. Quality standards have to improve dramatically for India to make the most of its infrastructure push, say experts.

 Quality standards, or design standards, define the best practices that are to be followed when designing, choosing the material and constructing an infrastructure project. 

Despite the Indian Road Congress's standards, lapses persist. The government’s promised new Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for tunnel construction safety have been delayed.

Officials had told Moneycontrol that the SOPs would be announced in March but that hasn’t happened.

Earlier this month, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) issued show-cause notices to 11 steel companies for failing to meet the quality standards for the bars used in building roads.