This blog, lekhanacha udyog, is my platform, my medium to express to the world, the things that I like and the things that bother me, and the articles herein are generally in my mother tongue Marathi. But this post is in English because I want it to reach up to some people I know, who are from different parts of the world and probably do not understand Marathi. So let's begin........
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| Inauguration of Plumbing lab by Bosch India Foundation at ITI Chinchwad |
Honourable Minister, Skill Development, Home, Law and Justice, Government of Maharashtra, Dr. Ranjit Patil (wearing blue jacket) and me (the only guy wearing a half sleeve shirt) inaugurating the plumbing laboratory at ITI Chinchwad for Bosch India Foundation.
It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words. But here I may have to put up more than a thousand words to let you all know the significance of this picture. What is this picture about? To have an answer to this question, we will have to do some time travel. Hop in this verbose time machine and fasten your seat belts!
This all started about an year and half ago, January 2018, to be precise when I underwent a training of being a trainer, which was conducted as per the guidelines of Indian Plumbing Skills Sector Council (IPSSC) under Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), in the field of my profession i.e. plumbing engineering and design. The trainers who delivered that training are an institute from Pune known as Dnyanda Institute of Flow Piping Technology (DIFPT). During that training I felt like I need to connect with these people. And I am proud to say that today, I am part of the institute!
Let's rewind again to an year ago, to August 2018, when I was informed by the directors of DIFPT that Bosch India Foundation is coming up with what they call as Plumbing Artisan Center in or around Pune under the CSR activities of Bosch as a company. An artisan is a trained and skilled worker in any field where skilled workforce is required for doing the said task flawlessly.
Things started unveiling to me as Bosch was looking for suitable space for the proposed Plumbing Artisan Center and I was getting a feel that I am going to be part of something really big. Well, it was not the first time that I was getting associated with such big projects but this time things were little different and were at levels I had never worked at. I was going to play an important role in the making of this center. This much was good enough for me to understand my responsibility and to gear up for the things to come.
During this time, there were site visits going on to some of the short listed locations for the center and in one such visit at Chakan, close to the factory of Bosch (my first site visit for this center) I met a very senior person from Bosch. I was introduced to him by the one of the director of DIFPT and that too, was an immediate connect!
Any plumbing artisan center is required to have the components like a classroom with a projector for presentations and visually aided training, a place for work stations for trainee plumbers to practice various operations and activities required to do plumbing work, a tool room, practical area and a plumbing laboratory. Wait! What? A plumbing laboratory? I had my eyebrows and ears stretched and it flashed upon me that this is one such type of project that I have not designed! Because that was the time till when I was mentioning in my career profile, that I have worked as plumbing design consultant for all types of building construction projects. Then started the discussions about the interior layout of the proposed center. Many layouts were prepared and rejected for this place at Chakan.
All such big projects have to overcome small hurdles and this project was no different. For some reason, it was not possible for us (Bosch India Foundation, DIFPT and all the partner companies) to erect and commission the center at this place in Chakan. Again it was hunt for place and Bosch got this place at the Industrial Training Institute (ITI) in Chinchwad near Pune.
The available of space at ITI is little different than what we had visited at Chakan. Hence any of the layout prepared for the place at Chakan was not suitable for this place at ITI Chinchwad. As such all the drawing boards (CAD files, actually) were required to be cleared and a fresh start was required, At Chakan it was possible to have the training area and the lab literally under one roof. But at ITI we had to separate these two under the two roofs i.e. two different sheds made available in the premises of the ITI. As a starting point for the design, I received the drawing showing the plans and elevations of the place where the lab was proposed and it was my responsibility to fit the lab in the given space. I am a Civil Engineer and not an Architect. Hence it was not that easy for me to make an architectural layout. So I had to burn some mid night oil to reach to the interior layout of the lab.
Supreme, the company manufacturing all types of plastic pipes and related accessories required for building plumbing works is a partner company in this center and they have their own lab set up in their factory premises at Jalgaon. Jaquar, the company manufacturing all the taps, faucets and sanitary fixtures like basins and water closets is another partner company in this center. They also have a lab set up at ITI Panhala near Kolhapur. Visits to these places were must before starting any work on the lab for Bosch. Also I had visited the plumbing lab at College of Engineering, Pune during the training of becoming a trainer, which I mentioned earlier. Whatever I had seen, witnessed and assimilated at these three places and the pictures I could click there, was my working capital for starting the plumbing design of the lab for Bosch. I am happy that I could improvise up on what I had seen at these places.
Now the layout of different modules in the lab was done and was approved by Bosch. To prepare the plumbing layout for this lab was easy yet challenging. Easy because I carry an experience of a quarter century in this field of plumbing design, and challenging because anything and everything in this lab was required to have academic value. This lab consists of four different modules of installations viz. toilets for residential or hotel accommodation, for divyang or differently able people and for a commercial building. The forth module consists of special fixtures like a scrub sink and a bed pan cleaning sink required in a hospital. The main highlight of this lab is a sanitary down take plumbing system as per National Building Code of India and it is made using transparent pipes specially manufactured and provided by Supreme.
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| Explaining the sanitary down take system to Dr. Patil |
This lab is a must visit for anyone who is interested in making career in plumbing as a domain, plumbers to plumbing engineers alike.
Functioning of this lab requires assured supply of water, which can be recycled and reused. This is because none of the toilet modules are supposed to be actually used as they are for academic purpose. This requires pumping water into the various modules of the lab and Grundfos, a well known company manufacturing all different types of pumps supplied the required hydro pneumatic pumping system for this lab.
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| Hydro Pneumatic Pumping System by Grundfos |
On the day of inauguration i.e. on 29th August 2019, my role was to explain to Dr. Patil, all the different parts of the lab and their academic significance. Hence I was standing next the HR Chief of Bosch India who was escorting Dr. Patil. This HR Chief knew my contribution in making of this lab and hence offered me that I also shall cut the ribbon along with Dr. Patil! Oh!! I never had thought that something like this will happen in my life. I can not even say that it was a dream come true because I had never dreamed in my entire life that I could be opening something like this plumbing lab standing next to such high profile people.
Plumbing design became my profession right after my graduation as my father is from the same business. DIFPT started giving skill training for aspiring plumbers some nine years ago. I think it was destined that I will be part of DIFPT and get a chance to be part of such a magnanimous entity and get recognised at entirely different levels than my professional life so far. That's why I said this was the day I was born for!!
Nice rapport was built with project engineer from Bosch and with his buddy, the chief trainer at the center, during designing, erecting, testing and commissioning this lab. Conducting the final test run at the midnight before the inauguration and dinner thereafter with the this project engineer, chief trainer and the contractor cannot be forgotten! I feel that, though it was the end of the project of erecting this lab, it is entirely new beginning as many more such plumbing artisan centers are yet to come and a few of them are by Bosch itself.
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| DIFPT Team with Bosch Team |
I now stop being verbose hoping to get many more such opportunities in near future.
Two hundred and fifty sixth day.
Two hundred and fifty sixth page.
-Chetan Arvind Apte
13/09/2019
Sinhgadh Road, Pune.
