Ashwin Mahalingam

Indian Institute of Technology Madras | IIT Madras · Department of Civil Engineering

The rapid expansion of urbanization and the demands of a fast-paced world make efficient, reliable, and interconnected mass transit systems essential to modern cities. Digitalization has emerged as the cornerstone of achieving these goals, enabling data-driven decisions, real-time monitoring, and enhanced passenger experiences. India's transit land...

The varied nature of the construction industry, involving projects of different sizes, poses significant challenges to improving its Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) performance. The existing literature identifying strategies for improving the performance of small construction projects has focused on a deterministic and reactive view of safety....

City rebuilding precincts are embedded in, surrounded by, and sometimes resisted or celebrated by stakeholders they impact. These projects require long-lasting relationships and loyalty from the community they serve, making trust a crucial factor. This article employs a case study approach and draws from both social exchange and circuit of power th...

Contractual governance is considered sufficient to govern particular types of exchanges. In the presence of well-known transaction hazards, however, relational governance is increasingly viewed as a necessary complement to limit transaction hazard risks in many circumstances such as public-private partnership (PPP) arrangements. Consequently, PPPs...

" Case Study: Long Term Governance Challenges in PPPs - The Case of the Tirupur Water Supply Project" Mr. Sameer Kapoor, the newly appointed Managing Director of the New Tirupur Area Development Corporation Limited (NTADCL) looked around his centrally located, well furnished, spacious office. Mr. Kapoor belonged to the prestigious Indian Administra...

Policy Messages for Planning and Implementing High-Speed Rail in Asia explores policy keys to boosting HSR technology, safety, and organizational governance and culture. Drawing on global case studies and lessons learned, the book showcases successful HSR development experiences and evidence-based recommendations for realizing project breakthroughs...

Over the last two decades, cities in India have seen significant urban growth accompanied by green cover loss. Recently however, there has been a growing interest in urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) in these urban areas. The extent to which UPA mitigates the effects of urbanization is unclear. The present study aims to quantify the impact of...

Infrastructure megaprojects are temporal, complex undertakings that require close coordination between a variety of stakeholders to keep these projects on track. Very often, coordination bottlenecks emerge, particularly on vanguard projects, as parties are unable to agree on how processes and operations should proceed leading to slippages in durati...

During the construction and operation phases, infrastructure projects face social unrest, such as community protests, boycotting of services as well as negative press reports of these events and other aspects of the project. There is a need to consider the concerns and moral issues of the community throughout the lifecycle and not just at the incep...

Summary and Key Policy Messages § High-speed rail (HSR) is a high-capacity, efficient, environmentally friendly inter-city transport mode that has transformed the lives of millions. However, the essential condition for its socioeconomic impacts is how effectively projects are implemented and operated. § Learning from global HSR implementation and d...

With the advent of new sophisticated machine learning (ML) algorithms in the field of language processing, the horizons of generating insights from textual data have broadened exponentially. The application of these natural language processing tools is not new in the field of construction safety. However, specific gaps yet remain in the application...

External stakeholder management is important for managing an infrastructure asset throughout its life cycle. There is a dearth of research exploring the asset creation team’s rationalities invoking the strategies used for managing external stakeholders. The circuits-of-power theoretical framework, which considers actors within their social context,...

Infrastructure megaprojects can cause considerable inconvenience to external stakeholders such as project communities, stakeholders in lands and stakeholders in existing services. Managing these external stakeholders is difficult as they interact with the project across permeable boundaries, are unaccountable to the requirements of the project and...

External stakeholder support is critical to the success of megaprojects, necessitating strategic engagement, often using Information and Communications Technology (ICT). We conducted 30 semi-structured interviews with a megaproject team and analysed their social media communications with the project community. The findings show three ICT practices...

Oversight arrangements which articulate technical, contractual and organizational decisions in a project domain constitute project governance. In the light of rapid globalization and an increasing number of complex, pluralistic and heterogeneous projects, the need for contingent project governance arrangements which bridge both stability and tempor...

Peer review is a cornerstone of high-quality research. While attending PhD programmes, we mostly interact with advisors, however the academic quality of our work is ultimately judged by a broader range of academic peers. For early career researchers, transitioning into independent thought-leaders requires increasing exposure with our community of p...

Infrastructure megaprojects, due to their colossal nature, can cause inconvenience to multiple external stakeholders such as stakeholders in lands, existing services and project communities. These stakeholders are difficult to manage as they interact with the project across permeable boundaries, are not accountable to the requirements of a Detailed...

Megaprojects involve managing external stakeholders with diverse interests. Using an Indian megaproject case study, we discuss how the project managed external stakeholders through strategies such as: persuasion, deputation, give and take, extra work for stakeholders, and flexibility. Drawing from theories and frameworks of power, we explain how th...

This paper explores subtle strategies that megaproject teams develop in practice to manage stakeholders external to the project team. A governmentality approach is used to account for these strategies. A metro rail megaproject in India provides the case for the study. The strategies were identified through a content analysis of 640 project and non-...

Several multinational engineering firms offshore the delivery of engineering design or structural detail drawings to their globally distributed delivery centres. Studies have reported knowledge-sharing challenges when such work is co-ordinated across boundaries. This study takes a practice-based approach to explore knowledge-coordinating challenges...

There is a large programme of metro-rail construction in India, upgrading public transportation systems to provide rapid transit to millions of people in major Indian cities. The scale of this development makes it important to innovate as improvements in design, construction and operations can have a significant impact on built asset sustainability...

Managing the post-award phase of a PPP project is critical with respect to realizing the project’s intended benefits to society at large. The impact of institutional contexts as well as strategic action by project organizations on post-award project performance have often been studied individually. However, a comprehensive framework that combines t...

This paper contributes to Rodney Turner's initiative to develop a theory of project management from practice. Organizational scholars studying strategy suggest that more attention needs to be paid to practices involved in organizing, as well as the institutional contexts in which these practices are embedded. Taking a cue from strategy-in-practice...

Infrastructure megaprojects involve managing external stakeholders with diverse interests. The existing governance mechanisms such as contracts and conformance to standards are not possible with these external stakeholders as they are not accountable to the project. There are records of underperformance of megaprojects as they fail to manage the st...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present a case, with live examples from a construction industry development initiative in India, for developing a proactive construction clients charter; and a core set of key performance indicators (KPIs), as basic tools for facilitating the expectations of this special issue in “securing clients’ organisati...

Due to the virtue of infrastructure projects being socio-centric, the impact of these projects on the community is highly significant. While the stakeholders’ consultation and communication at the planning phase is relatively more stringent among the developed economies, the rapid urbanization and unprecedented pace of infrastructure development in...

The discourse on urban planning and development has evolved over the last century with top-down methods of planning urban spaces giving way to bottoms-up approaches that involve residents and other stakeholders in the design process. While the notion of participation and user involvement is considered critical to the design of appropriate and accep...

In the post-Bruntland era of sustainable development, design has taken a decided turn towards social impact although shows limited understanding of sustainable development. Socially responsible design (SRD) in developing countries builds on discourses of human-centred design, sustainability and social impact. Despite its successes, design approache...

Construction projects continue to be plagued by cost and time overruns, primarily due to poor information-sharing between project participants. Building information modeling (BIM) has emerged as a digital platform through which project teams can share information better and improve project performance. However, many barriers to BIM adoption exist....

Individual studies on the impact of such Private Sector Participation (PSP) have yielded mixed results. This study synthesises evidence on the impact of PSP on access and quality outcomes. Studies to be included for the review were selected using well-defined inclusion, exclusion and quality appraisal criteria. Meta-regression analysis of 90 observ...

In the recent past, several countries and states have begun to use Public-Private-Partnerships (PPPs) for infrastructure development and have attempted to create institutional environments that enable PPPs. Providing an enabling environment for PPPs entails a combination of institutional creation and changing existing institutions relating to proje...

Today several activities of a construction project can be supported with information technology tools. However, there have been many cases of technology adoption failure. Lack of understanding about the process of technology adoption is often pointed out as the reason. This paper is based on a study to explore BIM technology adoption process and at...

Increasing the use of renewables in the global energy mix has become a top priority for policy makers. In this paper, we use a diffusion theory based approach to analyze the impact of government initiatives on the development of wind energy infrastructure focusing on the specific case of wind energy diffusion in India. We propose a new framework—th...

Developing countries have been increasingly adopting the Private Sector Participation (PSP) model in the delivery of electricity, telecom and water services. The results from individual studies on the impact of PSP has been mixed. This systematic review synthesizes the evidence on access and quality of services as a result of PSP. Though count of e...

In India, the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model for project implementation has been gaining prominence as municipalities attempt to meet a growing demand for infrastructure services. However, weak competencies within urban local bodies (ULBs) present one of the primary bottlenecks to implementing PPPs in the delivery of urban services. In this...

Purpose The aim of this paper is to identify the combinations of economic, normative, reputational and cognitive mechanisms that can prevent post‐award governance challenges on build‐operate‐transfer (BOT) projects in India. Design/methodology/approach The paper uses an empirical, case‐study based methodology to collect data and analyzes the cases...

Given the quantum of infrastructure that needs to be developed in India over the foreseeable future, private sector participation in infrastructure development is inevitable. The Government of India has taken several steps to enable public–private partnerships (PPPs) for infrastructure development at the state and municipal levels. While these sche...

Public Private Partnerships have gained popularity as a mode of delivery for infrastructure projects in India. The institutional contexts surrounding these projects constrain or enable the smooth execution of these projects. In this article, we explore the key capabilities that need to be present in the institutional environments surrounding the pr...

Public-Private Partnership (PPP) coordination agencies are often used to assist government agencies in structuring PPP arrangements. Very few studies have compared the performance of various coordination agencies to understand the characteristics that define an effective coordination agency. The authors study three coordination agencies that were i...

This paper provides a means for improving the effectiveness of energy related decision-making during the design phase of a building. A review of the literature and discussions with experts revealed that several approaches for an Integrated Design Process for energy efficient buildings exist. However, most of these approaches are relatively abstract...

One of the key challenges in the development of infrastructure in India is the acquisition of land necessary for the projects. Land acquisition techniques adopted across a variety of other countries are reviewed in this paper. Although no single "best practice" exists, viewing land acquisition practices through a framework of principles, processes,...

As indicated by previous chapters, an increased need for public facilities and infrastructural improvements of all kinds – transportation, energy production and distribution, clean water, and sanitation – has led to a rapid rise in the volume of activity in the international construction industry in recent times – in particular, in developing count...

Globalization has led to a widespread increase in the practice of ‘offshore outsourcing’ of projects in the construction industry. This phenomenon has led to the development of a new form of organization—the ‘global virtual team’. Where much is explored in the extant literature on the ingredients affecting virtual team functioning, relatively littl...

Recent studies indicate that India must invest more than $150 billion over the next 5 years in the development of urban infrastructure. Urban local bodies lack the financial resources and the capacity to develop these projects on their own, pointing to a large role that public-private partnerships (PPPs) need to play in the development of urban inf...

4D CAD models that integrate physical 3D elements with time, have been used to visualize construction processes in several projects worldwide. 4D models have been used and have been shown to have benefits over processes that span the entire lifecycle of a project such as collaboration with stakeholders, making design decisions, assessing project co...

Recent governmental programs in India envisage the delivery of urban services in partnership with the private sector through public private partnerships (PPP). As per the Indian constitution, urban local bodies (ULBs) are primarily responsible for the provision of infrastructural services in urban areas. While these urban local bodies are competent...

"Case Study - Creating the Alandur Sewerage System: Project Structuring and Risk Management" Mr. B. Subramaniam, the Mayor of the municipality of Alandur was a relieved man. His dream of providing a sewerage system to the entire town of Alandur was on the verge of becoming a reality. The municipality was about to sign a contract with a consortium...

The quality of urban engineering services such as water supply and sanitation have gradually deteriorated across India in contrast to the increasing contribution of these areas to the country's GDP. The service delivery departments of the urban local bodies (ULBs) are responsible for providing municipal services to urban residents. These department...

The pace of urbanization in developing countries is widely accepted as an irreversible process and these countries are investing considerable amount of resources for the management of this phenomenon. The mismatch between the demand and supply of urban infrastructure services resulted into shift in mode of delivery of urban services, which are bein...

Global construction projects that involve collaboration between participants from multiple countries can often lead to conflicts and delays due to different cultural perceptions of acceptable levels of safety among the different project participants. The current literature has not explored the origins, extent and costs of these delays, as well as w...

Global construction projects that involve collaboration between participants from multiple countries often result in unique challenges, and costs due to cross-national interactions. Case studies performed to investigate the cross-national interactions and tensions present on global projects suggest that institutional differences—differences in work...

Anti-corruption agencies that are independent and vested with the authority to enforce laws can be a potent force in combating corruption. However, overzealous anti-corruption agencies acting in the absence of an effective institutional environment could paralyse the public sector's decision-making apparatus by instilling a sense of hesitancy into...

Global construction projects that involve collaboration between participants from multiple countries result in unique challenges that are not faced on intra-national projects. In order to further investigate this phenomenon, we conducted detailed case studies on four, matched international construction projects - two in Taiwan and two in India. Thr...

Large Infrastructure Projects in developing countries often involve multiple international contractors working together. Cultural differences at many levels are likely to impact the performance of these projects. There may be differences in national cultures between international joint-venture partners. Local institutions and cultural norms of the...

Global construction projects that involve collaboration between participants from multiple countries result in unique challenges that are not faced on intra-national projects. Why is this so? Evidence from anecdotes and case studies suggest that institutional differences— i.e. differences in work practices, legal regulations and cultural values—con...

This paper reports on an attempt to integrate and extend two established computational organizational models—SimVision® and Blanche—to examine the co-evolution of workflow and knowledge networks in 21st century project teams. Traditionally, workflow in project teams has been modeled as sets of sequential and/or parallel activities each assigned to...

Planning heavy lifts is a complex process. The conventional tools available for planning are limited. As a result, the planning process is tedious and cumbersome. This work focuses on developing a heavy lift planning tool within the AutoCAD environment. The planning features of the tool are developed within two key modules: the Visualization. Modul...

Aluminium Formwork System is a comparatively new technology in India. Generally, aluminium formwork consists of standard sized panels and custom sized panels. The total area of custom shaped formwork elements can be reduced by optimizing the allocation of standard-sized formwork elements. This can in turn lead to large savings in formwork costs and...

In this paper we develop a multi-agent simulation model to explore the impact of inter-firm relations in construction industry interorganizational networks on the productive implementation of innovations. Though interorganizational network researchers generally agree that when firms form into networks they will gain access to new knowledge, the que...