Dr. Virindra K. Raina
The Renowned Bridge Expert
Dr. Virindra K Raina, world-famous civil and structural Bridge engineer and formerly a senior Expert and Consultant to the U N and the World Bank, exclusively speaks with Built Expressions on the various aspects of Bridge Design and Construction, his experience on the 40 Km. long Bahrain-Qatar sea link project and his nine professional books.
BE: Doctor, just take us through how you took to Bridges and then to writing your professional practice-oriented voluminous treatises on Bridges.
VKR: It is just that I used to be overawed by BRIDGES that I saw ... each standing alone, out there braving the river, withstanding the rigours of floods, sitting on different types of foundations in different types of substrata, and yet carrying the traffic safely across - came hell or heaven !!!
So, I decided to see and feel the mystery myself. Civil Engineering offered me a chance to 'Analyse, Design, Detail and then Construct' some 110,000 lane-meters of Bridges in different Countries. One Bridge lead to another, one country lead to another, and experience accumulated, and then the UN and then the World Bank gave me the chances to do it all on a grander scale, inter- as well as intra-country....and fortunately I never looked back. I was always short on time and long on effort, trying to meet the ever shrinking deadlines.
Decision making was tough but that is where all the 'fun' was. One of the prices a practicing professional has to pay is that he, unlike those involved in only research and laboratory work, or class-room lectures, or staid office-work, hardly has time to write. A chronic practitioner would rather spend his time in designing (and still more designing) and constructing (and still more constructing) and rehabilitating, than just writing.
But of course it would be very useful if such a real-life practicing professional - who has his fingers on the pulse of practice and, has a lot to write about, could squeeze time in order to 'also write' for the profession, however hard it might be for him to find that time. Having worked with many Consultants and Contractors in many countries for many years on a multitude of projects, I assiduously sifted and stored the experiences over long years with a view to sharing them with others through my various stubbornly practice-oriented Books.
BE: Being an expert in Bridge Design and Construction, what are your observations when it comes to the bridge scenario in India vis-a-vis that in the developed countries?
VKR: Bridge Design and Construction in the developed countries is somewhat different compared to that in India. Most of the bridges in India generally are ordinary and dare I say: almost simple minded. The Bridge Design and Construction is looked at in a meticulous manner in Europe and in the North American continent - and even in China, Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, etc. You have a consulting engineering firm supervising construction every step of the way - their Supervising Engineers are well experienced with the necessary specialized skill sets in their respective areas within the engineering space. There each bridge engineer, highway engineer, materials engineer and quality control engineer, etc., is generally specialized enough in his respective field as to have earned his 'Professional Engineer' or a 'Chartered Engineer' stamp from the respective recognized Professional Institution.
In India, the client awards the work to the construction firm - many times to a Concessionaire whose main focus, unfortunately, is essentially on 'getting it done with quickly somehow, often times with scant attention to quality - whether in Design or in Construction. I find the technical and professional qualities of even the supervising engineers very poor.
The Concessionaire is always in a tearing hurry to somehow conclude the work, reach the COD and collect the Toll, never mind the quality. Most of them lack the necessary technical experience - many times even the technical qualifications.
The Authorities here glorify engineers with "foreign" experience even when, in reality, rarely these foreign experience follows have adequate experience. During my career with the U N, I've personally interviewed upwards of almost 1000 engineers in the affiliated fields. Of these, majority were found unfit for carrying out quality works and hence rejected - with only some, at best, taken as ordinary Supervisors. Unfortunately, I find many of those rejected ones taken here on Indian Projects as 'Senior Engineers', even Team Leaders - why: because they have "foreign" experience, never mind even if they may, in actual fact, be ordinary "Supervisors" at best. (Many low-level Europeans, Philippinos and Bangladeshis fall in this category.) Unless this mentality of glorifying 'foreign' experience - never mind the standard, is reversed, I suspect there will soon be many tenders for repair and rehabilitation - and that will be a pity!
BE: How do you think bridge construction has evolved over the years by using different technologies and materials?
VKR: Bridge construction commenced with timber and stone, went to cast iron and wrought iron, and then graduated to steel, reinforced concrete and pre-stressed concrete.
BE: You have worked not only in Europe, Canada, the U.S. and Africa, but also in the Gulf countries for a long period of time. Can you share with us your experience there?
VKR: With increased production of crude oil from the late 70s, Saudi Arabia became richer and has been attempting to improve its infrastructure ever since. To take on the challenge, they obtained from the UN various teams of Experts indifferent involved fields. The Ministry of Communications there set up a formidable Team of UN Experts for a multi-billion Dollar multi-year programme of Design, Construction and Maintenance and Rehabilitation of hundreds of Km of Highways, Bridges and Tunnels. Based on an international competition, the UN selected me as the Leader of this Team of Experts. We covered Design, Construction, Repair & Rehabilitation and Contracts for this awesome Project spread over the entire country. It was a huge responsibility. Delivering the Team’s work, I reported to the Minister. The whole country looked like one construction camp. These Highways and Bridges are a class apart and are there for anybody to see - a real feast.
BE: You were the person behind the Design of the well-acclaimed 40 Km. long Bahrain-Qatar Sea-link project. Can you take us through the process?
VKR: The Arabian Gulf is a nearly 1000km long finger of the Arabian Sea going west, all the way to Kuwait. A 40 Km. long Sea-link has been proposed to connect Bahrain with Qatar. This is expected to cost approximately US Dollars 5000 Million (nearly Rs. 30,000 crore). Its Design is a major challenge. The Study and multiple Investigations and Design work took some years, and is still not final. The major imponderables were environmental and having to face the destructive effects of chlorides, sulphates and the moluscs (which eat away the lime-stone C.A.). This requires bringing in Gabbro C.A. from the UAE, 700 Km. away. The ZERO ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT REQUIREMENT involved, for instance, ensuring undisturbed free exchange of salt and water across the sea-link. Any change in the salt content affects the lifecycle of the peculiar marine species (the Dugongs) abounding in the waters in the vicinity. Another important constraint was to so locate and design the deep foundations such that these would not puncture the under-sea aquifers that bring natural water from the south of the Sandi land-mass to Bahrain, which otherwise would cause a catastrophe.
Hence fixing the sea-link’s alignment was a major challenge. The location and extent of the navigation channels and associated dredging, reducing the Driver-fatigue in driving through the semi-infinite continuum of sea-water with harsh yellow sunlight glaring above, locating the island-embankments so that their effect on the delicate balancing of exchange of salt and water and across the sea-link for the undisturbed living of the Dugongs (the UN-protected sea-cows existing there in the Bay of Salwa), and keeping the migratory routes and spawning grounds of Shrimps (a very valuable commodity there) unobstructed, all were necessary in order to have an almost Zero Impact on Environment.
The materials required for the construction were chosen with the greatest of care since many items have to be imported from far away countries. Hence the Investigations and Design involved almost clinical analysis of prevailing constraints.
The actual construction work has yet to commence because the Authorities are now thinking of catering for carrying the future Rail-traffic as well (after so much work has already been gone in to the Project).
BE: Tell us about your nine books including your very recently published 'Handbook of Concrete Bridges'.
VKR: My prolonged and hard-core professional experience in several countries obviously exposed me to a lot of professional work of international standard. This, in turn, enabled me to sift and store a lot of practice-oriented engineering material and its thorough understanding. This led me to author these practical reference-class books, of which the latest is the 'Handbook of Concrete Bridges'.
I felt there was a crying need for practice-oriented books of international standard which addressed the actual 'practice' in matters of Analysis, Design, Construction, Repair & Rehabilitation, Contract-Management and Construction-Management. The target readers of these books are the professional Consultants, Contractors and the dedicated students and Clients in these fields. I began writing these books in 1974.
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Dr. Virindra K Raina is a leading practicing civil/structural Bridge engineer of global standing. He served as a Senior Expert and Consultant to the UN, the World Bank and to some governments, in many countries for many years. He also served as Director (Technical) with Messrs ITNL (of the IL&FS Group), a large Transportation Infrastructure company. Currently he is the Principal Advisor to ICT Consultants operating in India and abroad.
Dr. Raina obtained his B.Sc. (Civil engineering) in 1961 from Banaras Engineering College of the BHU - obtaining TWO Gold Medals for merit.
He began his career in India as design and construction engineer but very soon after he was selected by Great Britain for the prestigious Commonwealth Scholarship to study at the world-famous Imperial College, London - from where he obtained his MS (D.I.C.) and Ph.D. in 1964 and 1966, respectively.
He is also a registered Professional Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers (London) and of the Association of Professional Engineers (Ontario, Canada).
He worked with consulting engineering organizations in London and Toronto and was soon involved in many prestigious civil engineering Design and Construction projects around the world. He worked as a high-profile Consultant to the United Nations, the World Bank and the African Development Bank, many prestigious Govt. organizations and Engineering Groups in many countries for many years.