CMD, BHEL honoured with ENERTIA Individual Contribution Award in Thermal Power Sector - 2008

For commendable contribution and achievements over several decades of excellence in the industry, Mr. K. Ravi Kumar, Chairman & Managing Director of Navaratna engineering and manufacturing enterprise, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), has been conferred the prestigious ‘ENERTIA Individual Contribution Award in Thermal Power Sector’, for the year 2008.

The award was presented by Mr. R.V. Shahi, Former Secretary - Power, Govt. of India, to Mr. K. Ravi Kumar, CMD, BHEL, at a function held here today.

ENERTIA Awards are given annually to Corporate Leaders, Companies and one State for outstanding contribution in the field of Sustainable Energy and Power, by ENERTIA, India’s leading journal on Sustainable Energy and Power.

An independent jury headed by Mr. R.V. Shahi unanimously selected Mr. K. Ravi Kumar for the Award for 2008.

After completing his M. Tech from IIT Madras and Post Graduation in Business Administration, Mr. Ravi Kumar joined BHEL in 1975 in the Energy Systems and New Products (R&D) Division, after a brief stint in the private sector, and rose to the position of CMD. He has made significant contributions in various key functions like Engineering of Control Equipment Products in the Electronics Division, Bangalore, Construction and Project Management of Thermal, Hydro, Nuclear and Industrial sets in Power Sector Southern Region, Chennai and Head of Marketing of BHEL’s Power Sector business segment.

Mr. Ravi Kumar took over at a crucial juncture when BHEL is building Capacity and Capability to contribute fully for meeting the power forecast for the 11th Plan and beyond. For this, the company has already enhanced its manufacturing capacity to 10,000 MW per annum and is further augmenting it to 15,000 MW per annum in the next two years.

Significantly, Mr. Ravi Kumar was instrumental in achieving many firsts for BHEL namely the first 1,000 MW coal based turnkey project of NTPC at Simhadri in Andhra Pradesh completed in a record 39 months, the first 350 MW gas-based turnkey project of NTPC at Kayamkulam in Kerala involving dredging and dynamic compaction of 14 lakh cubic metres of sand, again in record time, and synchronization of the 210 MW Raichur Unit 7 of KPCL in a record 25 months, besides introduction of a host of innovative erection techniques.

Under his leadership, new technologies like Supercritical Thermal Sets in the field of coal, and gas-based power plants using Advanced-class Gas Turbines were introduced for the first time in the country and were meticulously executed.