Pictures of a Project Past

A road cutting through the rock, KM68 - 69, Pune-Solapur Highway - Picture compliments of Alex Wong Chark Yee. He presented this picture to most of us as a souvenir. Thanks a lot mate!

Have been stuck in the head office for the last 6 months now, doing mostly tenders and project support. Have visited I dunno how many project sites, but not being involved directly with one particular project is a big change from my previous stints. I’m not complaining as I get the weekends off, hehehe, but after being connected to project sites for so long, this just feels different. Kinda miss the times that I can play king, and make things happen at my command hahaha...

Here’re some pictures of my past project in India, in various stages of completion, pictures I’ve collected during the course of my work. There’re hundreds, maybe thousands of pictures, but I’ve saved just a few in a special folder for remembrance and posting, just in case I run out of things to post. And so here it is.

This should keep my blog going until I get time to sift thru the hundreds of pictures taken this year! Yeah, this year so far has been a really interesting year, in terms of holidays that is… especially during the transition time in between employments.


More pictures of the KM68 - 69 stretch, at different times. This one is from the early stages, Mar 2011, rock excavation in progress.


Same view as the above (ok, almost the same view), for comparison, with road works completed – Nov 2012


KM68 - 69, one service road through, the main carriageway and another service road to go – Oct 2011


KM68 - 69, rock breaking of the carriageway in progress – Nov 2011


Culvert construction KM70, in the vicinity of the large Cipla pharmaceutical factory, Kurkumbh Maharashtra Industrial Development Corp (MIDC) area – Dec 2011


Ups and downs, what a design? KM70 completed, Dec 2012 – Another picture from Alex Wong


Half-completed Patas Toll Plaza KM65 – Dec 2012


KM62 bridge concreting, Jun 2011 – the crappy old boom pump in the picture will prove to be one of the most important machines in our Project, with everyone fighting over it until at least near the end of the project. There’s a crew of full-time mechanics, operators and helpers dedicated specially for this machine, to make sure that it doesn’t break down.


Road construction inside Yawat town (KM43), the most congested part in the Project – Nov 2011


The Deep Canal under construction, KM79 – Mar 2012. See previous post ‘Back to Reality’ posted 25/July/2012 for views of how deep this is. The far end of the road is where the KM80 Railway Bridge is.


Launching girders over the railway at the KM80 Railway Bridge (or more commonly known as an ROB in India, short for Railway Overhead Bridge) – Dec 2012


Road paving works at the approach to the Railway Bridge, during the monsoon season – Jul 2012


Indian Independence Day Celebration 2012 at our Project Office

The Festivals Continue...

Kids, dressed up for a celebration, at the Firangai Mata Temple in Kurkumbh, Daund, Maharashtra – The little girl in front is the daughter of Ambadas Bhagat, our local office boy (cum office priest, o yes, we have an office priest, don’t mess with us!) (Picture – compliments of Thangaraju, my Malaysian colleague)

Last weekend was Deepavali (or Diwali for short in many parts of India). Here in the UAE, we got a 3-day weekend (Fri-Sun), thanks not to Diwali, but to the Islamic New Year (aka Awal Muharram in Malaysia). Nope, didn’t do anything ambitious. Went to church (it’s on Fridays here in Dubai), and had lunch at the pastor’s house (again, in conjunction with celebrating a church member’s birthday). On Saturday evening (or more like night) we had a barbecue in a park with the church group celebrating the pastor’s birthday. Not much photos as it was at night, and whatever photos we have are still in the camera (as usual). Creek Park was surprisingly crowded at night, with loads of people picnicking, barbecuing, and just plain having fun. There’re kids running all over the place till at least 11pm at night.

In another place (I’m thinking Malaysia), the only people you’d find at a public park that late at night would be young lovers, gang members, drug addicts or suicidal citizens looking to be robbed or stung by a hundred mosquitoes. The beauty with Dubai is that is has NO mosquitoes, none so far anyway. Wonderful huh?

I’m putting some photos of some of the festivals that used to grace our boring routine lives while we’re in Maharashtra, India. That’s the beauty of staying in a country with so many gods. Luckily for these festivals, if not I can’t imagine how tensed up we’d be (especially the missus) when yours truly used to work six & a half days weeks, topped up with unending telephone calls coming at anytime from the horde of heroes and villains of the Project.




Procession at the Firangai Mata (or Devi) Temple, Kurkumbh 2011 in conjunction with… I have no idea, there’re temple-related functions and celebrations every other week! Every temple has its own special day, there’re about a hundred and one temples, or more in our stretch. Now, do the math. (Pictures – compliments of Thanga)


The annual Tukaram Phalki procession / pilgrimage – June 2011. Every June, we have to shut down our road construction works for 3 to 4 days to allow the procession to pass through. About 25 km out of our 54 km stretch of road are affected. Tens of thousands of pilgrims (I don’t know how many, but there’re a lot) embark on a month-long procession from Dehu, near Pune to Pandhapur, a journey of about 250 km, on foot, sleeping in makeshift tents along the way set up by the organizers and villagers. (Don’t ask me how they deal with their daily toilet needs coz I have absolutely no idea.) The centrepiece of this procession is a palanquin (phalki) carrying the things of the Hindu saint, Tukaram.


Tukaram Phalki 2011, at Chaufulla


IJM Trucks cleaned up and garlanded with flowers in conjunction with Vishwakarma Puja, the worship day of the Hindu God of Engineers, Architects, Craftsmen and the like. This day, by the way, is the only day in the year that you’d see machines, trucks and tools in India cleaned up and properly arranged.


Having a feast on Vishwakarma Puja, IJM Girim Camp, Maharashtra


Anu and a neighbour, at our apartment grounds in Daund, on Ganesh Chaturthi 2012 – a festival dedicated to Lord Ganesha, the Hindu elephant-headed god. This is one of the biggest festivals in Maharashtra, and you’ll see countless temporary Ganesha shrines (mandaps or pandals in the local language) set up all over the place.


Anu with a another friend, parking lot below our apartment, Daund


Anu & Justin, Deepavali 2012, Daund