What is common to Mumbai Trans Harbour Link, the light rail transit system in Mauritius and the Abu Dhabi International Airport Complex? They were all built by Larsen & Toubro.
Founded in 1938 by Danish engineers Henning Holck-Larsen and Soren Kristian Toubro in Mumbai, the company made its name in the engineering and construction space building landmark projects like bridges, airports, nuclear plants, factories, metro rail systems, defence installations, defence vessels, hydroelectric projects among many other things.
Though the engineers from Copenhagen laid the foundation of the company, the credit for what L&T is today goes to the Navsari-born Anil Manibhai Naik. He joined L&T in 1965 as a junior engineer and, after 58 years, stepped down as the group’s chairman on October 1.
Naik’s father was a schoolteacher, who left Bombay for his village in Gujarat in 1952. After earning a degree from Birla Vishvakarma Mahavidyalaya Engineering College in Vallabh Vidyanagar, Anand, Naik joined Nestor Boilers, but soon left it for L&T. “My dream was to go to L&T and serve the nation. L&T was the only platform, and today also is the only platform, which can serve our country,” he said in an exclusive interview.
This story is from the October 15, 2023 edition of THE WEEK India.
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This story is from the October 15, 2023 edition of THE WEEK India.
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