BHEL & its employees win two National Safety & three Vishwakarma National Awards

For their innovations, employees of Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) have once again bagged three 'Vishwakarma Rashtriya Puraskars', among a host of public & private sector companies in the country.

Various innovations and modifications in manufacturing systems and processes undertaken by these awardees have resulted in a cumulative recurring and non-recurring saving of more than Rs.Five Million to the company.

In addition, two 'National Safety Awards' have been won by BHEL's manufacturing plants at Trichy and Bangalore, for outstanding achievements in terms of longest accident free period and lowest accident frequency rate at their works.

Significantly, BHEL and its employees have been winning both these prestigious national awards, instituted by the Government of India, Ministry of Labour, consistently, since their inception. In the last five years itself, 24 Vishwakarma awards have been shared by 57 BHEL employees.

Three Vishwakarma Rashtriya Puraskars, under different categories, have been shared by eight employees from BHEL’s Haridwar unit, for their innovative suggestions leading to cost reduction, higher productivity, safety and quality of products, etc.

Notably, the team of Mr. Rajendra Prasad, Mr. Ram Sajivan Pal and Mr. Ghasitu Ram designed and developed a special drilling device cum fixture for drilling holes in the inner wall of the stator body, resulting in increased safety, efficiency and productivity, enhanced quality of the product, reduced manpower requirement and elimination of requirement of a costly and overloaded machine.

Similarly, Mr. Ashok Kumar, another Vishwakarma award winner, designed and developed a CNC programme for improving the process for blanking of inner casing components of gas turbines leading to reduction in cycle time, improved productivity and decreased consumption of raw material. His efforts resulted in enhanced customer satisfaction and significant recurring savings.

The awards were presented by the Union Minister of State for Labour & Employment, Mr. Chandra Sekhar Sahu, at a function, at a function in New Delhi, on September 17, 2006.