I still remember the day when Mr.Balkrishna Gupta - a reputed Structural Consultant and Promoter - Builder from Pune, called on me. Mr. Gupta came straight to the point – "I have decided to set up an Eco-friendly flyash brick plant near Pune and need an experienced professional to guide me through. My son Mayank is doing MS (Civil Engineering), and his project work is related to production of flyash-based bricks and blocks. I want to commission the plant within the next 18 months so that he can take it over on his return from the U.S. I want to finalize the consultant within a fortnight. Please let me know whether you can take up the responsibility on a turn-key basis and guarantee me a competitive cost of production (vis-a-vis local hand-made clamp-fired bricks) and IS : 4139 product quality."’
 
From his very first words, I could figure that Mr. Gupta is going to be a very ‘demanding’ client. However, his illustrious background (he had been executive engineer with MSEB, Deputy Director of Central water commission, and advisor to the Ministry of Heavy Industries – Libya), determination and urgency to implement the project, tempted me to take on the challenge. With a cautious yet assertive approach, I could convince Mr. Gupta that the nearest Thermal Power Station at Nashik being 250 kms. away from Pune, stone dust was the only locally available and viable substitute to flyash and that the project would involve substantial process / market development work prior to achieving commercial success.
 
Within 15 days of our first encounter, on 31st May 1997, I entered into a turnkey consultancy contract with Mr. Gupta. The next 24 months saw the project finding its way through many twists and turns, before finally getting commissioned in June 1999. Some of these developments are summarized below:
 
Study of existing flyash brick plants
We began our work with a study tour of all operating / brick plants in the country in June and July 1997. The plants included Damodar Valley Corporation, Durgapur; Jagatdhatri Brick Industries (P) Ltd., Barrackpore; Pulver Ash Projects Ltd., Bandel and one at Pollachi (near Coimbatore). We also held discussions with the promoters of these plants. Specifications of Mixer and Semi-dry Press, choice of the Semi-dry Press supplier and investment / turnover ratio of the project turned out to be the most commonly expressed issues that influenced the commercial success of their plants.
 
Site selection and N.A. permission
The project site was selected keeping in view its vicinity to Pune’s largest cluster of stone crushers as also the market. The site was within 500 metres of Bhima River, and brickmaking at that time enjoyed 'red zone' status as per the classification of Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB). Therefore, I had to plead our case with the State Pollution Committee for almost 3 months to obtain its consent letter for converting our agricultural land into Non-Agricultural (N.A.) one. The permission had to be gazetted in the State Gazette before we could start applying for various registrations.
 
Pilot scale process development
An old hydraulic press lying idle with me for quite some time was ‘upgraded’ to develop / withstand higher pressures. It was then installed at the plant site by obtaining a temporary 3-phase power connection. An autoclaving facility was hired from a nearby MIDC. A series of experiments were then designed and meticulously carried out to arrive at the ‘most preferred’ raw-mix design and operating conditions. Market feedback was also obtained and considered at this point. This led us to completion of the ‘pre-design’ and ‘basic design’ phases. Two independent lines of Mixers, Brick Presses and Autoclaves - one using hydraulic pressure and the other using hydro-mechanical pressure - were designed. Machinery suppliers were then selected and firm orders placed. At this stage, preference was given to local suppliers and their track record, with respect to the after-sales service, was given due consideration.
 
Feasibility report and financial closure
A detailed Techno-Economic Feasibility Report (TEFR) was prepared taking into account all four ‘pillars’ of the project, viz. management, market, technology and finance. Because of the continuing recessionary conditions in the construction industry and owing to the ‘novel’ nature of the project, our term loan proposal was promptly turned down by two financial institutions, before getting the ‘green signal’ from the third. This took almost nine months.
 
Process / product fine-tuning vis-a-vis market feedback
Our initial raw-mix consisted of locally available graded stone dust and hydrated lime from Jodhpur. Flyash from Nashik and red oxide pigment from Roha were then added to improve the granulometry and ‘market acceptance’ of the product, respectively. The Jodhpur hydrated lime has now been replaced by locally available lime sludge – a waste of Acetylene Plants. A special chemical is also being added to the raw-mix to improve strength of the edges.
 
The installed capacity of the plant is 1.20 crore bricks per year (based on 300 working days) and the total project cost has come to Two Crore Rupees. The product has now positioned itself well in the Pune market and the bricks are fetching at least 50 % more price than hand-made ones owing to their superior quality. The average strength and porosity of the autoclaved stone dust - lime bricks has come to 90 kg /cm2 and 10 %, respectively.
 
Looking back, I can site four major reasons for the success of the venture:
n My decade long first-hand experience with process / product development and turn-key implementation of brick plants coupled with Mr. Gupta’s uncanny ‘commercial’ sense.
n Step-by-step and cautious approach adopted by us throughout the implementation of the project
n (never losing sight of the financial repercussions of every rupee invested)
n The tenacity and the ‘burning desire’ of Mr. Gupta to succeed.
n ‘Sense of mission’ developed and shared by us throughout the project.
 
Pune’s first ‘green’ brick plant has thus become a reality. Time is now ripe for other red brick plants in the region to turn ‘green’ (not with envy, of course!).  q