Mumbai: All you need to know about Larsen & Toubro’s new corporate experience centre

A confession before we begin Until we walked into Planet LampT Larsen and Toubrorsquos new corporate experience centre in Powai we didnrsquot quite know what to expect Is it a museum A gallery space Or a science cafe Turns out it is all that and moreSpread over a 11500 square feet at its newlybuilt office AM Naik Towers the project offers an interactive experience for visitors using robot guides holographic images giant touchscreens a multisurface projection immersive zone and augmented reality among other futuristic technologiesA robot hostess greets and welcomes vistors to the centreIt is a fascinating peek into the Indian conglomeratersquos journey of 80plus years including its history and growth from Powai an uninhabitable swamp that nobody cared for back in the 1940s The company is a legacy of two Danish engineers who arrived on Indian shores as representatives of the Danish engineering firm FL Smidth amp Co in connection with the merger of cement companies that later grouped into the Associated Cement CompaniesTogether Henning HolckndashLarsen and SK Toubro founded the partnership firm in 1938 which was converted into a private limited company on February 7 1946 The company rented a plotmdash22 hectares of land in Powai infested with snakes wild animals and crocodilesmdashin 1948 It is from this outpost that the construction and mining machinery was rolled out by the firm including the latest launch hardware for Indiarsquos first mannedspace mission Gaganyaan key marvels of which are on display hereA scale model of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle The company provides critical components systems and subsystems for space missionsThe centre is divided into 12 key zones enabling a visitor to either take a complete tour or focus on a specific aspect of LampTrsquos past present or future We walk into the entrance lobby where Elle a robotic lady who we learn is here to greet and guide visitors to the first zonemdashthe Welcome Dome Here a short film played on a miniplanetarium style screen provides a glimpse into the ethos of the centre At the end of it the dome flashes this writerrsquos name and midday the newspaper we represent making us feel like wersquore part of a fiction filmThe milestones section has a giant 25foot long interactive screen that brings decades of LampTrsquos history to life You can even seek out specific events Last year the Uttar Pradesh administration approached the company to provide an integrated command control centre to manage crowds at the Kumbh Mela Around 1100 CCTV cameras were installed at over 265 vantage points An Intelligent Traffic Management System was also put in place across 19 junctions to give leads and feeds to the administrators to facilitate alignment of traffic flow based on prevailing situations All traffic movements were integrated with Google maps Quite heartwarmingly nobody went missing at the event last yearThe Into The Future zone features a glass pane thats actually a TV The section throws light on the companys ambitionsYuvraj Mehta head corporate brand management and communications LampT says ldquoWe made up our mind that Planet LampTrsquos tone of voice will be light contemporary and digital Our stories are continuously evolving hence our experience centre should not be frozen in time but should constantly capture those changesrdquo Mehta believes that the market is too saturated with traditional branding ldquoAn lsquoexperience centrersquo is a more interactive and engaging form of storytelling for a corporaterdquoOver a year ago the firm revamped their multimedia museum at Manapakkam in Chennai which is christened HHL Centre after its founding father Henning HolckLarsenThe Immersive Zone is a cube that offers neverseenbefore views of their iconic projects PicsShadab KhanA standout experience for this writer was the Immersive Zonemdasha 10rsquo x 10rsquo cube that delivers a multisurface cinematic experience and neverseenbefore views of their iconic projects We got a 360 degree view of the Medigadda Barrage a mega structure part of the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation project in Telangana Thevital irrigation infrastructure designed to lift an estimated 180 TMC of water per year from the river Godavari to the Sripada Yellampalli Project to provide drinking water and meet the industrial needs in 23 districts of Telangana It was executed on fast track mode by the firm We got a close look at the 16kmlong barrage across the Godavari equipped with 85 gates piers and associated guide bunds and flood bunds of 1803 km on either side of the barrageA section titled the Nationalist has been dedicated to its chairman AM Naik top honcho in Indiarsquos technology and engineering space The zone tracks his rise as the CEO at the company where he started as an engineer We learn that at Naikrsquos job interview the formidable Hansen found him ldquooverconfidentrdquo and advised his colleague to hire Naik at a lower rung post of junior and not an assistant engineer Naik joined LampT in 1965 at a truncated salary of R670 per month According to reports Naik was key in building the 20 billion diversified LampT Under his leadership the firm expanded its portfolio into defence nuclear power aerospace water and information technologyThe Into the Future zone is a dive into the emerging technologies and how it will change the way we live Read the Hyperloop an ultra modern new superfast transport project which the company now has its eyes on For now the facility is open only to VIPs and stakeholdersAs we near the end of this seamless journey we realise that Elle wonrsquot allow us to leave without recording a video byte on our experience And we thought itrsquos robots who follow commands