PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Channel Tunnel Project

Channel Tunnel Project

Introduction

Project management has developed to control, plan, manage and co-ordinate the diverse and complex operations of modern commercial and industrial large projects. The common cause of all these projects is the projection of activities and ideas into new endeavours. The objective of project management is to forecast and analyse all possible problems and dangers that may disrupt the defined objectives of the projects. The prediction and analysis is the starting point of the project management. The real test of the project management starts with the management and planning of all possible and identifiable problems and danger with the limits of time and money. The project is said to be successful if it has achieved its desired result within its defined boundaries of time, quality and budget (Lock, 2007, pp. 32).

The presence of uncertainty and risk element makes the completion of the projects on time and tends to put pressure on the financial side of the project. The on time completion of most of the advanced and complex projects is viewed with uncertainty due to the presence of these risk factors. It is the duty of the project manager to forecast these risk factors and make provision accordingly. It is true that some of the risk factors are difficult to predict and even impossible to manage. For example, for large construction projects the, the weather element is a risk factor. Though modern technology can forecast the weather with more accuracy and precision but we cannot manage the weather. But we can manage our work according to the prediction of weather.

Project management is about the management of activities, planning of what to be done and what not to be done, organization and arrangement of all the resources, the staffing of the right people for the right job at right time, monitoring and evaluation of ongoing activities as well as controlling the activities and innovation and representing the stakeholders by making and maintaining active liaison with all stakeholders (Charrel et al., 2007, pp. 3).

The channel tunnel project is the largest privately funded underground project which connects France and England. In this research study we will explore three most important objectives of project management of channel tunnel project.

Discussion

Overview of Channel Tunnel

The channel tunnel project also commonly known as Euro-tunnel is the largest tunnel network that connects France and England. The total length of the tunnel is 50 Km and 39 Km of the tunnel are under the sea. Though the idea of channel tunnel project was initially given in 1802, but the actual and formal attempt to start the project was dated back to 1880. In 1974, the work started but very soon, the project was abandoned due to financial problems. In 1986, after the announcement of France and British government the project was started again. On December 1, 1990 both ends of the tunnels was met with 2 cm error but the total completion of the project came in ...