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“My most memorable moment was when we won the NSC Gold award for the third consecutive time, a ROSPA Gold and the management asked me to go to receive the award in London,” shares R Sudharsan, with a humility that belies his pride for having won a wide array of awards for his projects ranging from the National Safety Council, British Safety Council, ROSPA, Institution of Engineers and from one of his clients, Nuclear Power Corporation of India. “We won the NSC Gold award for three times in a row which is an Indian record,” he emphasises.
Handling the construction of mega structures like the four 174‑m tall NDTC Towers and two reactor buildings involving complicated construction and huge erections, without a single incident was really a high point of my life.
Sudharsan has grown as an EHS professional with L&T. Freshly posted at the DMRC projects in 2007, his first success was to help the projects get their ISO 14001 & OHSAS 18001 certifications. A couple of years later after moving to the Kakrapar Nuclear plant project, he was trying to understand and implement the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board standards. “Handling the construction of mega structures like the four 174‑m tall NDTC Towers and two reactor buildings involving complicated construction and huge erections, without a single incident was really a high point of my life,” he shares enthusiastically. A major part of his responsibility was to train the 6,000 workmen at the site, some of them not even from the construction field, to meet the client’s requirements and espouse the vision of zero harm, a task that he has gladly continued after his transfer to Chennai HQ, including creating VR videos to address safety.
Expenses incurred for safety precautions are normally not considered during the tendering process which Sudharsan found odd. “I sensed an opportunity, collected all the available data, analysed it and discovered that it comes to quite an amount.” He shared his findings and shares excitedly that EHS costs are now being considered when tendering.
Sudharsan attributes his continued success with L&T to the support and guidance from his seniors and the co-operation from his colleagues. “At KAPP, I was part of a young and cooperative team, dynamic on implementation and innovative with their thoughts enjoying the freedom to think without constraints,” he smiles and adds with gratitude, “I have been lucky to have iconic bosses who have guided and groomed me.”
At home, Sudharsan’s life partner, S Dhivya, is a lecturer and an excellent artist. “She has made beautiful Tanjore paintings apart from being a successful homemaker.” His pride for his wife’s talent and abilities is obvious. They are blessed with two sons, R S Harin and R S Vishnudev. Sudharsan spends his free time either playing with his kids, listening to Ilayaraja’s music or following his other passion, of taking long drives.
“L&T has been my dream company right from my college days, an organization that builds nations. Whenever I see people traveling in air-conditioned metros or enjoying uninterrupted power supply at their homes, I know that we are responsible for that,” he signs off, proud of his L&T association.