How I Automated Document Control for a ₹5,000Cr Airport Project
The chaos of 15 contractors sharing documents via email
Imagine this: 15 contractors, 5,000+ documents (RFIs, submittals, drawings, change orders), and the only system connecting them is email chains and shared drives. Version conflicts happen weekly. Approvals take 5 days.
That was the reality on a ₹5,000Cr greenfield airport project.
The approach
Instead of buying an expensive EDMS (Electronic Document Management System) that would take months to configure, I built a lightweight system focused on the actual pain points:
1. **Version control** — every upload creates a new version, old versions are never deleted
2. **Automated routing** — documents flow through the approval chain automatically
3. **Status visibility** — anyone can see where a document is in the workflow
4. **Email integration** — notifications come via email so nobody needs to check another platform
The tech stack
The results
The lesson
You don't need enterprise software to solve enterprise problems. Sometimes a purpose-built system — even one built in a few weeks — outperforms tools that cost crores.
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