Larsen & Toubro Chairman Mr AM Naik has played a key role in making what L&T is today. Honouring its chairman, L&T has renamed its manufacturing facility in Hazira, Surat as A. M. Naik Heavy Engineering Complex.
Mr SN Subrahmanyan (SNS), CEO & MD, L&T, said: “L&T’s Board of Directors has unanimously decided to honour the role that its Chairman Mr. A.M. Naik has played in transforming the Company and, specifically in setting up the large facility at Hazira, near Surat, by naming it ‘A.M. Naik Heavy Engineering Complex’.
A brief function was held at the facility on December 1st, 2021 in the presence of senior L&T executives and government officials. Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Naik said: “I am overwhelmed at this gesture by the Company’s leadership team. I feel it is a wonderful acknowledgement of the contribution in transforming marshland into a complex that can be described as the pride of the nation. Hazira is an affirmation that L&T will manufacture equipment for critical sectors of the economy and continue to make things that make India proud.’
Three decades ago, the site near the mouth of the river Tapi on which the facility is located was swampy wasteland which used to be inundated during high tides. Mr. Naik, then heading the Heavy Engineering and EPC projects businesses of L&T, saw in this marshland the water-front complex that would meet the Company’s long-term aspirations to manufacture over-dimensioned and complex reactors and pressure vessels.
Mr. Naik drove the change that led to a multi-phased expansion of the facility to incorporate a modular fabrication yard, and manufacturing of supercritical power plant equipment, nuclear forgings and a unique Armoured Systems Complex. The 750-acre facility with a 1.6 km long waterfront has exported large and sophisticated equipment to countries around the world including the U.S., Canada, and France.
Across the years, Hazira has set multiple global benchmarks including the world’s biggest reactors for several refineries and petrochemical plants, oil & gas platforms for ONGC and critical equipment for defence. A highlight of the defence equipment programme was the manufacture of howitzers – the K9 Vajra – which has since been inducted into the Indian Army.
Alongside L&T’s other major manufacturing facilities, the A.M. Naik Heavy Engineering Complex has seen continuous process improvements and the induction of automation and robotics to enhance accuracies and speed.
