Keeping India’s Booming It Industry Waterproof - Case Study I

By Author: Ms. Ishita Manjrekar
Total Articles: 16
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1.Edelweiss/IBM

DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM:

In 2008 Edelweiss, one of India’s leading financial service companies struck the highest deal in real estate by purchasing a 3 basement, G + 14 stored RCC building for approximately 250 crores with a built-up area of 2 lakh sq. ft. to house their corporate office. As part of their IT infrastructure, this building was also going to house Edelweiss’s main server room, battery room, electrical room, and UPS. The entire IT infrastructure for Edelweiss’s operation was designed, built, and maintained by IBM.
The structure consisted of RCC columns and PT slabs. In order to provide external glazing to the structure, extended cantilevers were cast along the entire periphery of the bldg. During June 2010 monsoon, rainwater seeped in through these extended cantilever portions which resulted in leakages in the server room and UPS area. It was also found that the existing PT slabs were porous resulting in the passage of water through the entire slab. This resulted in the shut down of the mainframe thereby hampering the entire trading activities of the company. Due to ...
... this major break down the clients demanded full proof waterproof system to ensure business continuity.
The clients approached Sunanda’s Concrete Materials Consultancy Division, based on our exemplary track record of delivering results. This site was especially complicated since the slab was post-tensioned and hence it was impossible to grout it. Consequently, the selection of a waterproofing system, design, implementation of a foolproof waterproofing specification, and on-job quality assurance assumes paramount importance.

Post a detailed inspection, identification of weak spots, the custom methodology was recommended, approved, and executed in a record time of 45 days.

Fig 2: Edelweiss Financial Services, Mumbai

Fig 3: Edelweiss House, Mumbai

About author

Ms. Ishita Manjrekar is a director at Sunanda Speciality Coatings Pvt. Ltd and oversees Sunanda’s R&D, with a specific focus on developing and marketing Sunanda’s line of sustainable construction chemicals. In this role, Ishita draws on 4 years of rich experience in sustainability at Primary Global Research in San Francisco and New York. While at Primary Global Research Ishita led the “Green Technologies” business unit. She has been invited to feature on Bloomberg TV as well as Bloomberg Radio numerous times as a subject matter expert on sustainability and green technologies.

Ms. Manjrekar's expertise has also been sought by multiple print media including Reuters, Financial Times, Bloomberg, Forbes, BBC News, and Market Watch. Ms. Manjrekar has traveled to over 20 countries and regularly publishes research papers on sustainability and green construction chemicals in journals of national and international repute. Most recently she was invited to present a paper on sustainable solutions being developed in Sunanda’s ISO 9001:2008 certified R&D lab at ACI’s Spring Convention in Pittsburgh USA. Ishita also spoke on the latest innovations in sustainable underwater concreting practices at the International Conference on Sustainability organized by the India Chapter of American Concrete Institute at Mumbai. As an expert in green construction chemicals, Ishita is often invited to be on peer review panels for papers published in National and International publications.

Ms. Manjrekar holds a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai (erstwhile UDCT). She also holds a Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Rensselaer (RPI) in New York, USA.