The Instrumentation Man
Published on : Tuesday 31-12-2019
Dr B R Mehta, Consultant, Reliance Industries Ltd. In the world of Control Systems & Instrumentation, Dr B R Mehta needs no introduction. For nearly five decades, he has straddled the field like a colossus, leaving his imprint on the assignments he handled, crossing many milestones on the way, most notably handling from concept to commissioning of a string of successful projects for Reliance Industries, where he has spent 35 glorious years, and still counting.
Even as a budding engineer, Dr Mehta was very clear about his passion for instrumentation, passing out with flying colours from Gujarat University in the early 1970s. As a young engineer he joined Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Limited in Vadodara in 1972 and spent the next 11 years there, responsible for the instrumentation of the polymer plant, acquiring skills and gathering experience that laid the foundation for his subsequent career in a highly competitive field and a critical core sector industry. In 1982, Dr Mehta joined Agro Chemical & Food Company, Kenya, as Chief Engineer (Instrumentation), taking charge of instrumentation in what was a highly automated plant making power alcohol and baker’s yeast from molasses, a sugar waste. After two years, he returned home and in 1985, joined Reliance Industries. The rest, as the cliché goes, is not history but a still unfolding story in a long journey, now as a Consultant.
And what a fascinating journey it has been. During his 35+ years with the Reliance Group, Dr Mehta has been involved in successful execution of instrumentation and control systems for Patalganga, Hazira and Jamnagar projects. He has worked with many overseas licensors like UOP, Foster Wheeler, ICI, Union Carbide, Du Pont, Stork, and Stone & Webster; and engineering contractors like Bechtel, Fluor, John Brown, Lummus, Jacobs H & G, Lucky Engineering, Chemtex, Worley, Aker Kvaerner, Fluor and other vendors. The tasks he handled ranged from basic engineering, detailed engineering, procurement, inspection, expediting, construction, testing, to pre-commissioning and commissioning of various petrochemicals, chemicals, co-generation power and refinery projects.
Needless to say, Dr Mehta is regarded highly in the industry and among his peer group. It is pertinent to recall what Dr K Nandakumar, Chairman and Managing Director, Chemtrols Group of Industries, once said of him during an industry event. “Mehta embodies the essence of constantly learning, evolving and growing. He not only foresees, but also understands the technology of tomorrow and ensures that not only he, but also his team and his projects are at all times ready to seamlessly integrate into tomorrow’s technology,” said Dr Nandakumar.
Awards and honours have followed Dr Mehta in course of his illustrious career:
- Member of End User Advisory Council (EUAC) worldwide for FieldComm Group
- Founder Chairman of Instrumentation Experts Club, Mumbai
- Chairperson for India Customer Advisory Council of Honeywell Automation India Limited
- ISA Fellow in 2013 for innovative design and implementation of Foundation Fieldbus technology at Jamnagar
- Doctorate of Professional Entrepreneurship majoring in Engineering Management by European Continental University in May 2015
- District Vice President of District 14 for the year 2015 and 2016 for International Society of Automation (ISA)
- Global Achievers Award in September 2015 at House of Lords, UK by Achievers World and NRI association of India
- PhD in Control Systems and Instrumentation by Ecole Superieure Robert de Sorbon, France in February 2017.
Apart from this, Dr Mehta has performed a key role on the Board of Governors for the Automation Expo series right from inception in 2002, and was nominated as Chairman of Board of Governors for Automation Expo 2019.
Industrial Automation salutes Dr B R Mehta and wishes him many more fruitful years in pursuit of his passion.