Mr Arvind Dwivedi
May 4, 2022
“Ab to nasha ho gaya hai,” says Mr Dwivedi when asked about his demanding role. We have always talked about production and the heroes who deliver. Let’s also talk about the unseen heroes who make sure operations are running without any hiccups. Meet Mr Arvind Dwivedi, the man behind the Jajpur unit’s Railway siding. With an expanding plant, Railway siding has a crucial role to play. It won’t be an exaggeration if we term Rail logistics as the lifeline of any manufacturing facility of this scale. Read the amazing journey of Mr Dwivedi and get to know how he added life to this lifeline.
Tell us about your life before Jindal Stainless.
My father was in Defence. He comes from Rewa, Madhya Pradesh. He was working in the Ordinance factory in Nagpur. Hence, I spent my childhood and did my entire schooling and college education in Nagpur. I did my BA in Sociology and then did MBA in Operations Management. I did two diploma courses in Rail Transport and Management, and Multi-Modal Transport and Logistics Management from the Ministry of Railways on the job. I have recently completed my PhD in Rail Management. I used to look after road logistics in my initial jobs. Later on, when my role required me to look after Rail transport, I did these courses to equip myself with the knowledge my job required. I started my career with DHL, Delhi, and then got the chance to work in two major companies related to Logistics. I joined Jindal Stainless in 2015. Director, Operations and Projects (then Unit head of Jajpur), Mr Tarun Khulbe asked me if I can handle the Railway siding here and I said I can. That marks the beginning of my journey in Jindal Stainless. Railway siding was Mr Khulbe’s dream. It was not operational at that time. My team and I worked hard for 1-2 months, 15-16 hours a day. I joined in September 2015 and the siding got operational on November 5, 2015, within just two months. We sent the first rake on November 5, 2015, to Bahadurgarh, Haryana.
How has the journey of Jindal Stainless been for you?
It has been challenging yet extremely fulfilling. I remember the initial period after I joined. Mr Khulbe and Resident Director, Mr Shashibhushan Upadhyay used to come and supervise almost every day. Mr Khulbe had given me the task of starting the Railway siding. I learned a lot from him. He was extremely focused on achieving the goal and kept pushing all of us. At that time, some lines were not connected, some permission was pending, and the locos and track that we had were old. We repaired them all. My team kept working on increasing efficiency and upgrading the infrastructure. Earlier, raw material for the plant used to come via trucks. It was expensive and was vulnerable to thefts along the way along with spillage. Now, we load them directly from the port and bring them straight to our siding. There was chaos and a huge cost involved in the earlier process. Not to forget the amount of time we had to spend loading, unloading, and sorting through the material. We have eliminated all that. We have significantly reduced demurrage and detention along with minimizing multiple handling. Hence, our quality of service has become much better. We started with a mere 30 rakes in a month. We broke all records in this financial year with 1056 rakes. Our highest record per month was 111 rakes in December, 2020. We are planning to take the rake handling capacity to 250 per month in the future as the material traffic is expected to increase by a great extent. We have developed and installed a crane to lift containers so that we won’t have to use forklifts or any other lifters. Due to the Goliath crane that we recently installed, we have saved a huge amount of money, eliminated outside contractors and got the cost recovered in just one year.
Tell us about your most memorable moment here.
It’s hard to name a few. There are so many of them. Do you know we used to pay approximately 3.56 crores (2016-17) in demurrage (a penalty payable to the Indian Railways on failure to load or discharge material within the time agreed)? We have brought it down to 2.17 Lakh (2021-22) only. We used to handle a lesser number of rakes and incurring higher amounts of demurrage. We have increased rake handling capacity and brought down demurrage to a great extent. We haven’t derailed even once. We are now getting appreciation from the engineering department of Indian Railways. This is nothing short of an achievement for the entire team.
Another unforgettable incident was when a derailment of a rake coming from Hisar happened near Etawah, UP. 20 wagons fell off the track and toppled over. Even though that was not my area, I was told to go and handle it. My team What is your message to Jindal Stainless family? Perseverance is the key to success. Be proactive; assess every situation so that we have a ready solution for every possible problem that might pop. It’s important to keep ourselves physically and mentally fit. You will come across good people as well as horrible ones in the workplace. Don’t let anything or anyone deter you and dampen your spirit. Stay focused and you will be unstoppable. Daily inspection at Railway siding and I couldn’t sleep for a week. We worked nonstop and recovered all our material from there. The Railways give priority to get their wagons back on track. The material scattered around is not a priority for them. However, those materials are worth crores. We worked day and night to gather and pick-up all the material together and get it home. In the course of the derailment, our slabs damaged properties in the peripheral area. But due to my liaisons, Railways didn’t fine us a penny. Liasioning is a big part of Railway siding operation. There are a lot of activities in siding operation and it can get extremely stressful. Your relationships with stakeholders become important and can be a lifesaver sometimes.
What do you like to do in your free time?
Whatever little time I get during the weekends, I try to spend that with my family. I don’t normally get time to exercise during the week, so I do some pranayam and yoga on Sundays. I am a believer. I go to the temple inside our plant everyday without fail. The work we do is full of risks. That’s why I always take God’s name and keep my faith in the higher entity.
What is your message to Jindal Stainless family?
Perseverance is the key to success. Be proactive; assess every situation so that we have a ready solution for every possible problem that might pop. It’s important to keep ourselves physically and mentally fit. You will come across good people as well as horrible ones in the workplace. Don’t let anything or anyone deter you and dampen your spirit. Stay focused and you will be unstoppable.
