Lombardi Engineering India: Enhancing Collaboration & Project Management

Rakesh Ravinder Pandita, Chief Executive officer, Lombardi Engineering India, stresses the importance of collaboration among stakeholders throughout the project lifecycle and introduces the concept of a Common Data Environment (CDE) and Building Information Modeling (BIM) as tools for enhancing project management and transparency.
Improving collaboration among stakeholders is crucial for successful project execution. Stakeholders include designers, contractors, checkers, and other entities involved in engineering, approvals, and ground execution.
A key concept is the Common Data Environment (CDE), which serves as a single source of information accessible throughout the project's lifecycle. In metro projects, Building Information Modeling (BIM) is commonly used to integrate structural and architectural designs on a unified platform. This integration minimizes frequent design changes and reduces errors during execution, ensuring better coordination from the start.
BIM can extend beyond the design phase to include construction, operation, and maintenance if structured accordingly. Maintaining data accessibility over time is essential, as project data can get lost or diluted due to personnel changes.

At Lombardi, while working on the Gotthard Base Tunnel, we developed a platform specifically for linear projects, such as tunnels, roads, or pipelines. This platform offers a documentation module that archives all project activities from design through execution, including approval processes and daily progress reports. It also manages correspondence, including technical and contractual communications, from day one.
The platform is geo-referenced, allowing users to pinpoint project details on a map. This feature ensures that, even decades later, specific information related to a project location can be accessed, such as design details and implementation records. It also supports quality assurance and management, including generating and closing Non-Conformance Reports (NCRs).
Ultimately, this platform provides a comprehensive solution for archiving and retrieving project data. It offers clear, tamper-proof records that can be accessed at any stage of the project, now or in the future.
We have implemented this system in nearly 10 locations in India and believe that all stakeholders (authorities, contractors, and designers) should adopt a platform that ensures transparent information flow. This will significantly enhance collaboration and project management.