Zambia Telecommunications (ZAMTEL) inked a deal with Chinese equipment supplier Huwaei Technologies in 2007 for the latter to provide and build a national fibre-optic backbone. The fibre-optic backbone will be Zambia's first, and will link the nations provincial centres and towns, and is expected to increase the bandwidth available for both voice and data transmission.

Huwaei subcontracted the civil works in July 2008 to another company for completing 187 KM route from Lusaka to Rafunsa

The sub contracted company approached us in New Delhi and Col. (Retd) Inderjit Singh took over the project in October 2008 in Lusaka. It was seen that the OF cable was to be laid in the trench that had to be dug alongside the national highway passing through towns and villages. This work was highly labour intensive and needed skilled supervisors overseeing the work. At the same time, this work entailed coordinated planning with Huwaei, highway authorities, town committee and village head.

It was seen that there was a communication and work culture gap between Huwaei, sub-contracted company, and the local labourers. This led to disoriented planning, mismanagement in supply chain and unsynchronised targets and this led to delay in the project.

An organisation was set up with headquarters in Lusaka. It was a 3-tier organisation comprising of the project leader, skilled supervisors, and labour. A team of 15 supervisors from India with the requisite technical skills and experience were inducted into the organisation. 10 excavators were bought from VOLVO company in South Africa and 10 Kenyans were inducted to operate the excavators. And 350 local labour was hired for the work on daily basis. It was a multi-national organisation.

The project leader established regular meetings with Huwaei, governmental authorities, police, town planners, and village chiefs. The supervisors took charge of the documentation, logistic support, work procedure, and material repair and maintenance. The labour was trained was motivated and trained to acquire the basic skills required for the work in hand. This project required a fusion of work culture between people of different nationalities.

This enabled to meet contracted deadlines.