BHEL wins India Pride Gold Award for excellence in Heavy Industries

On his appointment as Director on the Board of Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), Mr. Atul Saraya, 55, has assumed charge as Director (Power) of the Navratna Public Sector engineering and manufacturing enterprise.

Prior to this, he was heading the company’s Power Sector (Marketing) function as well as BHEL’s Power Sector Eastern Region construction division as Executive Director (PS-Mktg. & ER).

A Graduate in Electrical Engineering from Harcourt Butler Technological Institute, Kanpur and PGDBM in Business Administration, Mr. Saraya joined BHEL as an Engineer Trainee in 1976 and has 33 years of diversified and versatile professional experience of working in various functions of BHEL.

After working in various capacities in the areas of Production & Manufacturing and Commercial operations in BHEL’s Heavy Electrical Equipment Plant, Haridwar, he took over as General Manager in BHEL’s Power Sector (Marketing) division and subsequently became General Manager Incharge of the company’s Power Sector Eastern Region construction division, Kolkata, before being elevated as Executive Director (PS-Mktg. & ER).

During his stint as General Manager (Mktg.), Mr. Saraya spearheaded BHEL’s response to the onslaught of Chinese competition and demonstrated a 100% success rate in booking orders for power projects. He played a key role in the launch of new rating thermal sets of 270 MW, 525 MW and 600 MW, introduced with the objective of blunting competition from Chinese manufacturers who were offering thermal sets of 300 MW and 600 MW unit rating.

His leadership as Executive Director, Power Sector Eastern Region, Kolkata has been quite eventful. Through introduction of various innovative improvements, Mr. Saraya has been instrumental in efficiently managing the execution of 39 EPC & BTG power projects being undertaken by BHEL in the Eastern region, as part of the Eleventh Plan capacity addition programme.

These include the 3,000 MW Commonwealth Games projects, where the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) has placed orders on BHEL for Mejia, Durgapur and Koderma thermal power projects (2x500 MW each). The execution of all the three is progressing as per schedule.