Construction Site Mistakes That Cost Crores

The most expensive mistakes in construction are not made on site. They are made in the office. Every crore lost on a construction project can be traced back to a decision made too early, a number nobody checked, or a risk nobody planned for. This book is about those decisions — and how to get them right. Manoj Kumar spent 32 years in EPC contracting across eight construction sectors: highways, hydropower, substations, transmission lines, water treatment plants, sewage treatment plants, steel plants, and mineral processing facilities. He has prepared hundreds of BOQs, bid on dozens of PSU tenders, poured more concrete than he cares to calculate, and dealt with every variety of problem a construction site can throw at you. This is not a textbook. It is a field guide — 18 chapters of real mistakes, real consequences, and real methods for avoiding them, organised in the order a project unfolds, from tender stage to final handover. What you will learn: How to read a tender document for the traps hidden in the fine print Why L1 bidding destroys contractor margins and how to protect yours The 30-minute BOQ check that catches errors before they become crore-level problems How soil conditions across Kerala, Gujarat, and the Himalayas have bankrupted contractors who ignored the boring log Why machine foundations fail and how to get them right the first time How to survive subcontractor defaults, PSU vigilance, and the politics of government project sites Rate analysis methods with real project data from highways, hydropower, and industrial facilities Monsoon planning strategies across four Indian climate zones How AI tools are already cutting tender preparation time by 60 percent The 50-point checklist that covers every phase from pre-tender to dispute prevention Letters to the next generation of site engineers — the advice nobody gives you in college Who this book is for: This book is written for civil engineers, EPC contractors, quantity surveyors, project managers, and anyone who spends time on Indian construction sites. If you are a final-year engineering student preparing for your first site posting, every word in this book applies to you. If you are a thirty-year veteran, you will find stories that make you nod and think — I have been there too. The mistakes in this book are real. The numbers are real. The lessons cost someone money, time, or sleep before they were learned. Read this book so you do not have to learn them the hard way.