A robot hostess greets and welcomes vistors to the centre

It is a fascinating peek into the Indian conglomerate’s journey of 80-plus 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 & Co in connection with the merger of cement companies that later grouped into the Associated Cement Companies.

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Together, Henning Holck–Larsen 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 plot—22 hectares of land in Powai infested with snakes, wild animals and crocodiles—in 1948. It is from this outpost that the construction and mining machinery was rolled out by the firm, including the latest launch hardware for India’s first manned-space mission, Gaganyaan, key marvels of which are on display here.

A scale model of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. The company provides critical components, systems and sub-systems for space missions

The centre is divided into 12 key zones, enabling a visitor to either take a complete tour or focus on a specific aspect of L&T’s 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 zone—the Welcome Dome. Here, a short film, played on a mini-planetarium style screen, provides a glimpse into the ethos of the centre. At the end of it, the dome flashes this writer’s name and mid-day, the newspaper we represent, making us feel like we’re part of a  fiction film.

The milestones section has a giant 25-foot long interactive screen that brings decades of L&T’s 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 1,100 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 year. 

The Into The Future zone features a glass pane that's actually a TV. The section throws light on the company's ambitions

Yuvraj Mehta, head corporate brand management and communications, L&T, says, “We made up our mind that Planet L&T’s 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 changes.” Mehta believes that the market is too saturated with traditional branding. “An ‘experience centre’ is a more interactive and engaging form of storytelling for a corporate.” 

Over a year ago, the firm revamped their multimedia museum at Manapakkam in Chennai, which is christened HHL Centre after its founding father Henning Holck-Larsen.

The Immersive Zone is a cube that offers never-seen-before views of their iconic projects. Pics/Shadab Khan

A standout experience for this writer was the Immersive Zone—a 10’ x 10’ cube that delivers a multi-surface cinematic experience and never-seen-before 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. The 
vital 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 1.6-km-long barrage across the Godavari, equipped with 85 gates, piers and associated guide bunds and flood bunds of 18.03 km on either side of the barrage.

A section titled the Nationalist has been dedicated to its chairman, AM Naik, top honcho in India’s 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 Naik’s job interview, the formidable Hansen found him “overconfident”, and advised his colleague to hire Naik at a lower rung post of junior and not an assistant engineer. Naik joined L&T in 1965 at a truncated salary of R670 per month. According to reports, Naik was key in building the $20 billion diversified L&T. Under his leadership, the firm expanded its portfolio into defence, nuclear power, aerospace, water, and information technology. 

The 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 stakeholders. 

As we near the end of this seamless journey, we realise that Elle won’t allow us to leave without recording a video byte on our experience. And, we thought it’s robots who follow commands.