Cochin Airport Runway Upgradation - A Runaway Success for Tarmat Ltd.
Jerry Varghese, Chairman, Tarmat Limited, discusses the challenges during the construction and up-gradation of the Cochin Airport Runway, and attributes the project’s completion on time to Ammann India plants and machines.
Please tell us about your business organization - Tarmat Limited.
Tarmat is an infrastructure construction company established in 1986 and is engaged in the business of construction of Highways and Runways. Our company is headquartered at Mumbai with operations spread across the states of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Mizoram, Gujarat, Delhi and J&k. We have mainly worked on projects sponsored by the Government or its agencies, including the Central and State Governments. We provide engineering, procurement and construction services for infrastructure projects.
What has been the company’s roadmap to success?
We bagged our first major contract in 1988 for the construction of roads - asphalt flexible pavement - for the entire Nhava Sheva port, along with construction of rigid concrete pavement base with RCC beams and columns for the container yard. We completed the project within the stipulated period of 24 months.
Tarmat has catered to both domestic and international airports, military air-bases and naval airports, and has established itself as a reliable contractor amongst its clients viz; AAI, MES, NAVY, MIDC etc.
Resurfacing, extending, strengthening and construction of runways and construction of parking bays, aprons etc at airports are our core competencies.
Some of the credit-worthy projects handled by Tarmat are the MES Arakkonam naval airport - one of the longest runways in India; Jamnagar Airport, AAI Mumbai International Airport, and Delhi IGI Airport. Our other successfully completed airport projects include Trichy, Mumbai, Daman, Chennai, Awantipur, Airforce station, Nanded, Maharajpur Airforce Station, Agra Airforce Station, Trivandrum, Jamnagar, JNPT helipads, Belgaum, Vadodara, and Cochin - which was the most demanding. We are currently executing major runway and airfield construction work at Chennai, Tuticorn, Trichy, Rajkot, and Pathankhot.
Tarmat has been accredited with the ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management System Certificate.
Why do you say that the Cochin Airport project was the most demanding?
Amongst all the projects undertaken by us, the runway resurfacing and up-gradation to CAT 3B Airfield Lighting of the Cochin International airport is one of the most challenging and successful projects in recent times. The project required 3000 tons of asphalt mix to be laid daily, with a laying time of only 5 hours. We were issued a timeframe of 8 months to complete the project, but managed to execute over 90% of the work within 4 months.
I strongly believe that there is no greater test of men and machines than an active runway construction. It is a tough, demanding work that requires meticulous planning and timely execution, along with stringent quality assurance at every step.
What were the key factors for the Cochin Airport’s successful completion?
One of the key success factors was that we did not lose out on our productive hours by even a minute. I would attribute this high productivity, which was instrumental to our success, to Ammann India and their employees. Excellent team work, a pro-active approach, and the customer centricity of Ammann team members played a significant role in the on-time resurfacing of the runway and profile correction work of the airport.
It would not be out-of-place to laud the helping attitude of the Ammann India personnel. As you may know, people make all the difference. To give you more specifics, let me list some of the outstanding work of Ammann India team that enabled seamless performance of our equipment.
Amongst the various Ammann products that we have been confidently using for our various projects are two Ammann ABC 140 ValueTec Asphalt batching plants and Ammann Sprayer for the runway project.
We wish to place on record that these plants and machines functioned seamlessly and were backed by their excellent after-sales support, which enabled on-time completion of the project. In my personal opinion, these are the ideal machines for airport runway resurfacing and profile correction work.
Please tell us about your business organization - Tarmat Limited.
Tarmat is an infrastructure construction company established in 1986 and is engaged in the business of construction of Highways and Runways. Our company is headquartered at Mumbai with operations spread across the states of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Mizoram, Gujarat, Delhi and J&k. We have mainly worked on projects sponsored by the Government or its agencies, including the Central and State Governments. We provide engineering, procurement and construction services for infrastructure projects.
What has been the company’s roadmap to success?
We bagged our first major contract in 1988 for the construction of roads - asphalt flexible pavement - for the entire Nhava Sheva port, along with construction of rigid concrete pavement base with RCC beams and columns for the container yard. We completed the project within the stipulated period of 24 months.
Tarmat has catered to both domestic and international airports, military air-bases and naval airports, and has established itself as a reliable contractor amongst its clients viz; AAI, MES, NAVY, MIDC etc.
Resurfacing, extending, strengthening and construction of runways and construction of parking bays, aprons etc at airports are our core competencies.
Some of the credit-worthy projects handled by Tarmat are the MES Arakkonam naval airport - one of the longest runways in India; Jamnagar Airport, AAI Mumbai International Airport, and Delhi IGI Airport. Our other successfully completed airport projects include Trichy, Mumbai, Daman, Chennai, Awantipur, Airforce station, Nanded, Maharajpur Airforce Station, Agra Airforce Station, Trivandrum, Jamnagar, JNPT helipads, Belgaum, Vadodara, and Cochin - which was the most demanding. We are currently executing major runway and airfield construction work at Chennai, Tuticorn, Trichy, Rajkot, and Pathankhot.
Tarmat has been accredited with the ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management System Certificate.
Why do you say that the Cochin Airport project was the most demanding?
Amongst all the projects undertaken by us, the runway resurfacing and up-gradation to CAT 3B Airfield Lighting of the Cochin International airport is one of the most challenging and successful projects in recent times. The project required 3000 tons of asphalt mix to be laid daily, with a laying time of only 5 hours. We were issued a timeframe of 8 months to complete the project, but managed to execute over 90% of the work within 4 months.
I strongly believe that there is no greater test of men and machines than an active runway construction. It is a tough, demanding work that requires meticulous planning and timely execution, along with stringent quality assurance at every step.
What were the key factors for the Cochin Airport’s successful completion?
One of the key success factors was that we did not lose out on our productive hours by even a minute. I would attribute this high productivity, which was instrumental to our success, to Ammann India and their employees. Excellent team work, a pro-active approach, and the customer centricity of Ammann team members played a significant role in the on-time resurfacing of the runway and profile correction work of the airport.
It would not be out-of-place to laud the helping attitude of the Ammann India personnel. As you may know, people make all the difference. To give you more specifics, let me list some of the outstanding work of Ammann India team that enabled seamless performance of our equipment.
- The Ammann customer support team has been very cordial and co-operative in extending on-site parts support.
- Ammann India deployed trained operators and technicians at site, which helped us in becoming productive, instantly.
- Ammann engineers have been monitoring the condition of ABC 140 ValueTecplants and machines on regular basis, almost daily.
- The plants and machineries were kept well maintained to ensure zero breakdowns.
- The maintenance schedule of Ammann India ensured that our productive hours were not impacted at all.
- The suggestions given by Ammann India towards pro-active maintenance were very helpful and gave our team a new perspective on how to achieve more with Ammann products.
Amongst the various Ammann products that we have been confidently using for our various projects are two Ammann ABC 140 ValueTec Asphalt batching plants and Ammann Sprayer for the runway project.
We wish to place on record that these plants and machines functioned seamlessly and were backed by their excellent after-sales support, which enabled on-time completion of the project. In my personal opinion, these are the ideal machines for airport runway resurfacing and profile correction work.
NBM&CW June 2020
