Summer Internship with Delhi Metro (DMRC) – Swati Jha from Amity school of Engineering and Technology
Swati Jha (second to left), despite being opposed by family and society, chose to chase her dreams of becoming a Civil Engineer. She interned at Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) Ltd, and she just loves her work. Swati is a Civil Engineering student at Amity School. Read on to explore her interesting story.
Okay, so I’m a girl in a man’s world. Literally!
My decision to study civil engineering was not accepted by my mom, she insisted on me to study Computer Science, with the regular mother’s worries–how will you survive, the construction business is men oriented, you’ll have to work in the sun, you’ll get tanned (imagine!) etc. By the end of my 3rd year, even though the interest I took in my subjects had not diminished, I had started doubting my decision to stick with the construction field.
But then came my internship–I interned with DMRC, more commonly known as Delhi Metro, on their new Phase 3. Initially, I was a little shaken because there were simply no other females. No female engineers, no female trainees! And wherever I went, people kept asking me why did you choose civil engineering being a girl. And later at the site, Munirka, where I was working, I realised that female labourers weren’t even allowed there. Great!
Initially, I was so stupid that I did not hesitate in asking the silliest questions. Suddenly coming out from the theoretical world to the practical industry was immensely exciting. It was an underground station, there was an actual tunnel being dug. I’d go to the site every day and even after spending my 2 months there, I can’t say I have learnt everything.
I’ll tell you guys a funny incident. Once during the excavation for Box Pushing, since we needed to go about 10-12m deep, we required the maps of water lines, sewage lines, electricity lines, etc. But as these pipes had been laid years ago, they had shifted from their original position, thus, we couldn’t determine their actual position. Therefore, when the laborers were excavating manually, they accidentally cut off the water pipeline for the entire Munirka region by mistake. And were the residents angry? They sat for a dharna (protest) outside the site. And then, even after it was rectified, misfortune knocked again and the same pipe was cut just 2 days later.
During these 2 months of my internship, there were so many learning opportunities, the underground station, the tunnel, the tunnel boring machine, the slabs, the concrete. I have a new found interest in the civil engineering field. So now although almost all of my friends are opting for management after B.Tech, I plan to stick to Civil Engineering. I do not see myself doing anything else 10 years from now. My internship story helped me realise my true passion.
Did Swati’s internship experience motivate you? Then, what are you waiting for? Register on Internshala and apply to these cool civil engineering internships.
