Sixty acres in three months

At Birla Century in Bharuch the brief was simple to state and hard to meet. Sixty acres were to be landscaped within three months. At that scale and pace there is no room for improvisation. Every week of the programme has to be planned before the first tree arrives on site.

Time of this kind can only be met with readiness. We drew on our own nurseries, where trees, palms and turf are grown and held in reserve. We relied on our own fleet to move them and on trained crews who had worked together before and knew the rhythm of a large site. Nothing depended on a supplier we did not know.

Speed never meant cutting corners with living material. A tree moved in haste and planted carelessly may look complete on the day of handover and then struggle for years. Each one was lifted, carried and settled with the same care it would have received on a slower programme. The difference lay in organisation rather than shortcuts.

The landscape was completed within the three months and inaugurated by the then Chief Minister of Gujarat, now Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It remains one of the projects that taught us how much a well prepared team can achieve when the clock is unforgiving.