I distinctly remember my first day at the office of Bihar Rajya Pul Nirman Nigam as its chairman. It was April 19, 2006 and as I walked towards my office a nauseating smell—a mix of stinking toilets and freshly spit tobacco—hit me hard. The building was dilapidated, dirty curtains hung loosely over doors, cobwebs had not been cleared for months, tobacco stains were splattered all over, rickety furniture was strewn in the corridor, and files were stacked with layers of dust on them.

A casual glance at the financial statement of the Nigam, and I knew the challenge was daunting. Formed in 1975, the Nigam’s objective was to build bridges in the state ravaged by floods every year. However, it had not only failed in its objective—it had built 319 bridges in the 30 years of its existence—but also turned into a liability, with an accumulated loss of Rs 17 crore. The earlier regime had lost faith in it and had filed a petition for its liquidation.

The present government put me in the hot seat to effect a turnaround. My first move as the commander of the ravaged ship was to apply for the cancellation of the liquidation petition. Once that process was initiated, we got down to the task of rebuilding the Nigam, brick by brick. 

Art of HR management

I started with field trips to the sites across the state where Nigam engineers were involved in some project or the other, and had detailed interaction with them. The engineers and other employees came across as an extremely unenthusiastic bunch. Some did not want to work, typical of any government staff, and those who wanted to put in some effort, had no incentive to do so.

I recall a meeting with the engineers in my office in May 2006, a few months after I had taken over. When I told them that we would build 500 bridges in two years, under the recently introduced Mukhya Mantri Setu Nirman Yojna, they were flabbergasted. They thought I was crazy (of course, they did not say so). “Sir this is impossible, we will have worked wonders if are able to build 15 bridges,” they said, almost in unison. Their disbelief was symptomatic of the despondency that had set in over the years of neglect, sloth and lack of direction in the corporation. The meeting had begun early in the morning and ended late at night. I took on all their doubts and misgivings one by one and tried to reassure them that the target was very much achievable.

This meeting along with the feedback that I received during my field trips made me realise that the corporation’s staff had to be yanked out of their collective slumber and hopelessness. I am an eternal optimist and I strongly believe that any target is achievable if the human resource is managed well. Therefore, the first step was to instill a sense of faith in the workforce.

The Bihar Rajya Pul Nirman Nigam was once on the verge of closure, admits CM Nitish Kumar

After the meeting was over, we drew a list of all the pending projects and set a deadline of May 2008 for their completion. To start with, we chose one of the most difficult projects that had been hanging fire for 15 years. This bridge, at Kataunjha in Sitamarhi district, was extremely important in terms of connecting two districts. We thought if we could take on this project and deliver, it would set a benchmark. It would also send a message that the government was serious in the revival of the organisation. At the site itself, we set the deadline for the project—April 19, 2007. We also put a young engineer, Sunil Kumar, in charge of the project. We told the staff that if the project was completed in time they would be rewarded and if they failed, they would be punished.

The carrot-and-stick formula worked. The bridge was completed within the deadline. It changed so many things for us. We realised that it was the same staff that had delivered and, therefore, could be trusted with the revival of the behemoth, if handled well. I also realised that as a bureaucrat I have to be a good human resource manager.

We rewarded the staff as promised. As an incentive, Sunil Kumar and six other engineers were given return tickets to Singapore, and 11 others were rewarded with Rs 20,000 each.

The incentive of reward worked wonders for the staff and for the Nigam, and by May 2008, we had completed all the pending projects. The chief minister (Nitish Kumar) inaugurated as many as 140 bridges in a day that year. It was a huge symbolic gesture and sent a clear message to the employees that the government meant business.

Once the staff realised their potential, magic spread within the entire organisation.

After that they did not need much goading. To tell you the truth, my contribution was limited to the first year, which involved a lot of planning, travelling, inspections and motivating the staff. I remember my days would start at about seven in the morning and stretch to the wee hours of the next morning.

The role of my boss, RK Singh, secretary, road construction department, was crucial. He gave me a free hand to work according to my plans and provided me with all the support that I required.

Sense of camaraderie

To infuse some sense of camaraderie among employees and loyalty towards the corporation, we began the process of celebrating the annual day. We also organised community lunches, movie screenings and motivational lectures. The Nigam building was renovated too. The cobwebs and rickety furniture are gone. It is a sleek office now, well kept and clean, has a committee room, a visitors’ lounge, a library and even a gym.

Different people get motivated by different things, ranging from recognition to fear to reward. We pulled every lever to get the work done.

I remember sending personal birthday wishes to all my staff. This gesture so enamoured them that on my birthday, the entire staff turned up at my office with a bouquet to greet me. It was extremely touching. 

Fine-tuning policies

The next step was devising a way to earn profit for the Nigam. For this we introduced something called ‘centage’, a concept borrowed from the Uttar Pradesh government. Under centage, we would charge for every project we undertook. The charges were fixed at 13 percent for any project under Rs 100 crore, and nine percent for those above Rs 100 crore. With the introduction of centage, we started earning decent profits.

The ball was set rolling; and now it required a proper mechanism to ensure it did not slip back to its earlier avatar.

To check corruption and delays in meeting deadlines, we ensured the monitoring system was foolproof. We introduced a closed user group of BSNL; so all officials were networked by phones with four-digit numbers. We also introduced the ‘mobile inspection’  system where all executive engineers had a GPRS-enabled SIM card in their phones. This enabled them to visit the site, photograph the bridge, and fill in details like the name of the bridge, its location and status. The details were then directly sent to the chairman who saw the same on his computer in his office. Every day, the chairman monitored the progress.

One of the flyovers built by the Nigam

Engineers were also provided with vehicles to help them go around for frequent inspections. They were given an allowance of Rs 18,000 per month for visits.

Previously, the tender process used to have a lot of irregularities. The land mafia would often threaten contractors, leading to indefinite delays in the projects and cost escalations. To get over this, we introduced a system of registration of contractors and told them they could hire equipment and personnel but both had to be seen on the site the day the work started. We introduced a transparent system and picked the contractors on merit through open tenders. We even got banks to finance them and ensured they were paid on time. Whenever there was any incident of intimidation or threat, we got the police to act.

Contractors who did not finish any project on time were penalised. We blacklisted 40 contractors and debarred 84 others who had failed to meet their deadlines. This process of weeding out the black sheep created a certain work culture and ensured that only efficient contractors worked with us. 

The stats

While the Nigam had built 319 bridges in 30 years (1975-2005), we built 339 bridges at an estimated cost of Rs 798.04 crore in just three years (2006-09)! It is currently implementing as many as 520 projects under the Mukhya Mantri Setu Nirman Yojna at an estimated cost of Rs 1,132 crore. Of these, 251 have already been completed, at a cost of Rs 302.40 crore. It is working on eight overbridges costing about Rs 306.61 crore and 45 major road projects at an estimated cost of Rs 438.00 crore. In 2004-05, the annual turnover in terms of work execution was Rs 57.38 crore. In 2008-09, it went up to Rs 768 crore, with a net profit of Rs 70 crore.

Today, the Nigam is the biggest taxpayer in eastern India. It has a wifi-enabled campus, and is the only company in Bihar, which has got the ISO 9001 and 14001 certification. It has also shouldered its corporate social responsibility by making a contribution of Rs 20 crore to the chief minister’s relief fund during the Kosi floods (2008). It has also diversified into building roads, toilets and parks.

My family and friends

This turnaround would not have happened, had I not received the unconditional and unstinted support of my family and friends. My wife Ratna (a lecturer), daughter Apoorva and son Anshuman were very understanding and did not mind my long hours of absence from their lives. They have forgiven me for my continued absence from the house, sometimes even on Sundays. These days I am trying to make up for those days. On Sundays I make sure I am at home and we watch movies together.

What Bihar Pul Nigam employees say

Ajay Kumar Singh, a lab assistant, is the one of the oldest employees of the Nigam. He has seen many chairmen come and go but none like Pratayaya Amrit. “He is a dynamic man. The credit for the transformation of the corporation from a dud to a profit-making behemoth goes to him,” he says. “Workaholic himself, he inspired the workforce put in that extra bit, and let me tell you nobody said no, such was his influence over the employees.”

Singh says Amrit took on the land mafia head on, and this endeared him to his employees. Earlier, engineers and other staff were often threatened by the criminals who in cahoots with politicians took huge cuts. After he took over as chairman such instances decreased considerably. He would call the area superintendent of police and get these lumpens arrested. The improved law and order scenario hugely boosted the morale of the staff in the field.

Meeting deadlines was what he ensured, says Alankar Sinha, an engineer with the corporation. “He would keep visiting the project site from the start to the finish talking to the engineers, encouraging them and ensuring the bottlenecks, if any, were removed,” he says.

Vijay Kumar, a design engineer, has been with the corporation for 15 years. He says Amrit gave the corporation the financial independence that saw it blossom and make a niche of its own. “Earlier a project clearance would take ages. Today it is done in a day,” he says. “We have seen him taking the project files himself to the chief minister’s office for clearance.” Kumar also marvels at the way Amrit gave the corporation the technological edge. The entire campus of the corporation is wi-fi-enabled, with a computer on every desk. “Mobile inspection was quite a path-breaking initiative introduced by Amrit,” he says. Engineers or the field officers had to send in the daily report about the progress of a project through their mobile phones. This ensured the chairman kept a tab on the project even if he was not able to visit the site himself.

“He inculcated in us a sense of pride as employee of the Nigam. Earlier a staffer did not want to reveal that he worked for the 
corporation. Today everyone proudly wears an identity badge around his neck,” Sinha says.

(As told to Brajesh Kumar)