Kshitish Nadgauda, Senior Vice President and Managing Director for Asia, Louis Berger

Tell us about your global consulting firm, core competencies and your India specific plans?
Louis Berger is a $1 billion global professional services corporation. We help infrastructure and development clients solve some of their most complex challenges. We deliver on our promise to provide Solutions for a better world by focusing on client needs to ensure quality, safe, financially -successful projects with integrity. Established in 1953, our company is a trusted partner to national, state and local government agencies; multilateral institutions; and private industry clients worldwide. Our company has a long-standing presence in more than 50 nations, represented by the multidisciplinary expertise of 6,000 engineers, economists, scientists, managers and planners.

Our core competencies include engineering design and consulting, construction and program management, architecture, and environmental and economic development services.

With approximately 650 employees in India, Louis Berger has worked to support major infrastructure development projects across the country, including the recently inaugurated Chenani-Nashri Tunnel project in Jammu & Kashmir that includes India’s longest tunnel, several major highway/expressway projects, Mumbai Metro Line 1, Mumbai Monorail, Navi Mumbai Metro, Hyderabad Metro, Navi Mumbai International Airport and Mopa Airport in Goa.

The Chenani-Nashri tunnel project was recently inaugurated. What was your role
in the project?
Our company worked as the project preparation and detailed project report (DPR) consultant on the Chenani-Nashri tunnel project, which was recently inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The scope of work included:

• Establishing the technical, economic and financial viability of the project
• Preparing the detailed project report for the rehabilitation and upgradation of the twolane
• highway to a four-lane highway
• Assessing the environmental and social impact of the project, including cultural properties, natural habitats and involuntary resettlement
• Preparing the design of the highway including pavement design, service roads, bridges, tunnels, and cross-drainage
• Identifying possibilities for improvements in the existing alignment and alternatives for bypassing congested locations
• Implementing the detailed design of all proposed tunnels according to the New Austrian Tunneling Method (NATM), including civil and electro-mechanical work and lighting design
• Preparing tender documentation for international and local competitive bidding

• Conducting public consultations, including consultation with communities located along the highway, NGOs working in the area and other stakeholders

Could you share with us some of your ongoing and upcoming projects in India?
Louis Berger has over 20 years of experience working in diverse sectors in India, including highways and roads, bridges and tunnels, rail and transit, aviation and smart cities. Our major ongoing projects in India include Mumbai Metro Line III, Nagpur- Mumbai Expressway in Maharashtra, and the Third Brahmaputra River Crossing in Assam, Mumbai Monorail, Hyderabad Metro, and Navi Mumbai International Airport. We have recently been appointed as Rajasthan Urban Drinking Water Sewerage & Infrastructure Corporation Limited (RUDSICO’s) consultant to monitor and control the state of Rajasthan’s Smart City and Atal Mission Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) projects. We have also been awarded two Smart City projects - Kandla Smart Industrial Port City, and Mangaluru Smart City.

We would not be able to discuss all of our upcoming projects as some of them are still in the proposal, or selection or contracting stage. We are, however, bidding on major projects in all infrastructure sectors, including highways/expressway, metro rail, rail, airports, water and wastewater and smart cities.