Annually in India, 15 September is celebrated as Engineer's Day to commemorate the birthday of the legendary engineer Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya (1861-1962). Internationally recognised for his work in harnessing water resources, he was responsible for the successful design and construction of several river dams, bridges, irrigation systems and drinking water schemes across India.
As we commemorate this important visionary in our Indian offices, it is fitting that we continue to follow in his footsteps.
Amec Foster Wheeler set up operations in India in 1998 with increasing levels of work, expending more than 15 million manhours of work in the last 10 years alone. Between our two offices in Chennai and Kolkata, there are around 900 staff supporting projects worldwide, as well as executing projects in India. Our customers recognise our already highly-skilled and experienced employees, and we believe that continuous people development is essential to keep us ahead of the game.
Over the last two months as part of a skills enhancement programme, a group of users and administrators from our engineering and design team hascompleted training on the entire AVEVA suite of 24 products covering all disciplines in engineering as well as interfaces between the disciplines and tools. Future plans include training in Smart Plant Instrumentation administration activities, and specialist engineering skills in cathodic protection and telecoms engineering.
A significant amount of time, effort and resource is being invested in our already finely-tuned workforce in India. Combined with extensive experience, this places us on a platform to execute work across Amec Foster Wheeler globally.
I think Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya would be proud.