L&T betting big on 'digital workers' to overcome manpower challenges inprojects : CFO

New Delhi: Larsen & Toubro is betting big on automation, robotics and technology-led solutions to scale up construction activities as increasing manpower alone may not be a viable option for growth, a top official of the company said.

"What we have been doing over the last 3-4 years in particular is to create automation to the level that we did not expect construction industry to engage. Our effort has been to automate as much as possible," said L&T chief financial officer R Shankar Raman at ICICI Securities India Investors Conference 2026.

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He said the company's order book has increased to around Rs 7.5 lakh crore from Rs 3-3.5 lakh crore five years ago, while the workforce engaged in execution has grown from 1.5 lakh direct and indirect workers to about 4 lakh.

Raman said the company is focusing on automation to address execution challenges and reduce dependence on traditional labour-intensive construction methods.

"Our effort has been to automate as much as possible. Make construction not so much of a site work. Make it a bit of a factory work by having prefabricated structures, modular structures. So, you go to the site and bolt them," he said.

He said the company is using robotics for activities such as welding, painting and plastering, and described technology-enabled systems as 'digital workers'.

"Today, we are having welders who are robots controlled by a programme. We don't need to run around for welding skill in the country. We have painters. We have people who do the plastering. All of that is being done by robots. So, in a way, you can call them digital workers," Raman said.

Raman said labour availability has emerged as a key challenge for the construction sector as workers today have more employment choices.

"Today, thanks to the way certain sectors have developed, people have got a little easier option than to go work in 40 degrees and 45 degrees and sit in a camp working for 6 months, 9 months a year. It's not a preferred option. They are quite happy to open the mall doors staying in an air-conditioned environment. And that's reality of life," he said.

He added that workforce continuity is also affected by seasonal migration, agricultural cycles and workers travelling back to their villages.

"I find that we might have to engage with 10 lakh workers to have 4 lakh workers working at any point in time in the factory," Raman said.

Raman said the company wants to lead the transformation of the construction industry through automation by leveraging its engineering capabilities and experience in executing complex projects.

"My belief is that this industry has to go through transformation in much faster and deeper way than what it is doing. L&T fortunately has both the order book and the means and the engineering capability within itself to attempt this. It's my desire, personal desire, that L&T should lead the way," he said.

He said automation will also help improve safety standards at construction sites where the company manages a large workforce.

"Safety is our biggest concern when we work with 400,000 people," Raman said.

"We hate to lose even one life in a year on account of accident in the site. Forget about lost time injuries. Fatality is something that bothers us very deeply," he added.

On L&T's international experience, Raman said the company's operations in the Middle East helped it develop capabilities to execute large-scale projects.

"Middle East has become our second home. Outside of India, the largest footprints that we have is in those 5-6 countries in the Middle East. And within that, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE are the three larger markets for us," he said.

Raman said working in these markets helped L&T gain confidence in handling projects of much larger scale.

"Working in the Middle East, we have learned to work with scale. I think the contracts in Middle East are several billion dollars per programme," he said.

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He added that working alongside global engineering majors in the region helped L&T improve its processes and execution capabilities.

"The methods that they follow, the work processes that they adopt, is something that you can learn if you work shoulder to shoulder with them on a project," Raman said.

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