Project Management Case Study: Aditya Aluminum Smelter

Executive Summary
This case is my first engagement in a project when I was deployed at the ADITYA ALUMINUM, HINDALCO INDUSTRIES, Sambalpur. It is a state-of-the-art aluminum smelter employing the highly articulate AP-36 smelting technology. The smelter is built in Lapanga, Sambalpur & has a capacity of 0.72 MTPA.
The project was employed in two phases with phase 1 successfully completed meeting all the requirements. Currently the phase 2 of the project is in progress. The project is running smoothly & is currently both financially and schedule wise on track. I was deployed in the Rectifier substation & 220 kV switch yard which was one of the most critical links in the smelting process. The completion of the project was of utmost criticality
This project taught me various nuances of project management & crisis handling situations & yet delivers the required output to the desired level of quality. PROJECT BACKGROUND:

Aditya Aluminum Smelter was the brain child of the late Aditya Birla, the then chairman of the Aditya Birla Group. The project officially kicked off in the late 1990s (1997-1999) but was indefinitely shelved due to lack of required regulatory permissions, clearances & delay in the land acquisition process. The project in all its earnest took off in the 2009 when the ground was broken for the first time at the project site.
PROJECT SITE LOCATION:
The project site is located at Lapanga, nearly 35 km from the city of Sambalpur which is the district headquarters for the Sambalpur District. The project site has a water source in the form of the Hirakud Dam reservoir & coal mines in the Talabira Coal mines.
PROJECT
Even though this seemed to be a problem at first, it turned out to be one of the best opportunities for me to work & learn from the project.
MY ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES
As it was the nascent stage of the green field project, the number of staff in the management & engineering cadre. Due to lack of sufficient number of personnel, I was put in charge of the rectifier substation & the 220 kV switch yard. Being the only engineer deployed there, my roles & responsibilities were as follows:
• First & foremost, I was in charge of the safety at worksite. This included the inspection of safety work permits of the workers issued by the contracting agency, safety certificate verification of the tools used at the work site, verificationof PPEs of the workers & safety harness & equipments of the workers working at heights.
• Since there was a lot of civil excavation going on initially, I was also vigilant about the proper barricading & fencing of the excavated areas & adequate marking of those areas with safety