Prof. Roger Plank, President of the Institution of Structural Engineers and Darren Byrne, Director of Membership and Education visit Kolkata

Preamble: Prof. Roger Plank, President and Darren Byrne, Director of Membership and Examination of the Institution of Structural Engineers arrived in Kolkata on 12 March 2011 on a six day visit to promote structural engineering and to raise the profile and membership base of the Institution in the Kolkata region. In my three capacities, namely, as a Council Member, as the Chairman of the International Interest Group and as the Country Representative of the Institution--all of course labor of love for me, I organized the engagements, in which I sought and received generous help from fellow members Tapan Roy, R N Basu, Manoj Majumdar, Dr. B C Roy, Jeremy Hall, Phalguni Banerjee, Mriganka Roy, Salil Roy and Dr. Kalyan Ganguly.  While I joined Roger and Darren to make a threesome team at all engagements, some of the other members joined in at a particular event as mentioned later in this blog. 


Over the span of six days the three of us attended some thirteen rewarding and enjoyable events, both social and formal. This blog catches some of those moments. To avoid undue length, in this blog,  I have included just one photograph for each event, which does not necessarily catch the whole event. There are of course  more photographs for each event; (for more photographs, visit this link:  http://bit.ly/fPQNLN ) 

Bulu Kundu, Manab Pal, Darren Byrne, Subha Pal, Roger Plank,
Kalpana Sen, Hirak Sen and Ron Banerjee

At the Floatel Promenade: The day they arrived, namely 12 March, in the evening my wife Kalpana and I took Roger and Darren to o a concert at the Floatel Promenade. (Floatel is a floating hotel moored on river Hooghly; it's owner Manab Pal and his wife Subha Pal are family friends of ours). The concert comprised of dance drama snippets of Bengal's cultural change over the past two and half centuries from the days of the Raj to the present day seen primarily through the dance drama compositions of Bengal's bard Nobel Laureate Rabindra Nath Tagore. This provided an excellent opportunity for Roger and Darren to get a glimpse of the transformation in the culture of Bengal over the years. Roger and Darren seemed to have enjoyed the evening and three days later Darren really surprised me very pleasantly when he immediately recognized a photograph of Tagore displayed in the foyer of the administrative building of Bengal Engineering and Science University.

Hirak Sen, Roger Plank, Darren Byrne and Rogerio Escarcega at the Will's
Pavilion, Tollygunge Club

At the Tollygunge Club: The next day being a Sunday, I took Roger and Darren to spend a relaxed afternoon at the Tollygunge Club where my friend Rogerio Escarcega joined us. Rogerio is an architect who holds dual citizenship of the USA and UK and had practiced architecture at Foggo's in London. We drank fresh lime and soda. While Roger and Darren had some kebabs, roti and dal, Rogerio and I had club sandwiches. Fresh lime and soda, that favorite drink of the Raj became an instant hit with Roger and Darren. Later I took them on a brief escorted tour of the club and they seemed to have liked what they saw. Unfortunately, the solar heated indoor swimming pool had been emptied for maintenance that Sunday; otherwise, we might have gone in for a swim. 

Front: R N Basu, Dr. Hirak Sen, Prof. Roger Plank
and Tapan Roy
Back: Salil Roy, Satchidanada Sur, Manoj Majumdar,
Phalguni Banerjee, Krishnadas Ray,
Dr. Kalyan Ganguly and Pabitra Mitra

An evening with the local members:  Later in the afternoon, Roger, Darren and I moved to the Bengal Club for a formal event in the evening with the local members. First, Roger, Darren, Tapan Roy, Phalguni Banerjee, Kalyan Ganguly, R N Basu and I had gathered in the Reynold's room and over some Darjeeling tea, I briefed the others about the events planned for the next few days and the roles that we would play in those events.

Next, we moved over to Room #300 where a few other members had arrived. First, I formally introduced Roger to the members. Darren of course being an old India hand, the members had met him in earlier years. Roger then made a technical presentation on Structural Fire Engineering based on 35 years of research that he had done on the subject. This evoked keen interest amongst the members and there was very lively interaction.  The formal meeting was followed by cocktails and dinner also in Room #300. Bengal Club provided excellent ambiance and food and drinks, which made the evening most enjoyable. 

Dr. K K Ganguly, Dr. Hirak Sen, Mrs. Shanta Ghosh, Prof. Roger Plank
R N Basu, G C Nundy, Darren Byrne and Dilip Chakravorty

DCPL's office in Salt Lake: On Monday 14 March morning, Roger, Darren and I  visited the office of Development Consultants Pvt. Ltd. in Salt Lake where we were received by Mrs. Shanta Ghosh, Chairperson, G C Nundy, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, R. N. Basu, Jt. Managing Director, Dr. K. K. Ganguly, Director and Dilip Chakravorty, Executive Director. DCPL made a video presentation of the company profile which was of great interest. Then Prof. Plank made a presentation on Structural Fire Engineering, I spoke on the role of IStructE and Darren on the routes to membership. Darren laced his otherwise serious presentation with some tongue-in-cheek, good natured, quintessentially British humor, which the audience loved. These were followed by lively audience interaction. Finally, R N Basu and Dr. K K Ganguly took us to lunch at a nearby restaurant which also afforded a splendid view of the ongoing Kolkata East-West Metro Line construction.

Hirak Sen and Darren Byrne at the Salt Lake Stadium

The Salt Lake Stadium: After lunch, we visited the Salt Lake stadium, which at 120,000 spectator capacity is the world's second largest football stadium, and for which the architectural and engineering consultancy services as well as the complete construction management services were provided by my firm H K Sen and Associates (jointly with Ballardie, Thompson and Matthews having equal and undivided responsibility in every discipline). I took Roger and Darren around the stadium for a brief overview. The stadium has a 3 tier gallery in RCC frame work and is covered by a 22m cantilever roof in 3D tubular steel frame and aluminium cladding. On a fully packed day the stadium accommodates around 150,000 persons comprising 120,000 authorized spectators holding valid tickets, a large state police force,  volunteers, food and drinks vendors and thousands of unauthorized back door entry spectators. The full stadium is designed to be evacuated in case of emergency within 10 minutes; it has been observed that in reality the full house crowd empties in just under 7 mins. In its 25+ years existence, there has not been a single casualty due to crowd rampage or similar untoward incident, which goes to indicate that if   a stadium provides adequate facilities the crowd will behave in a civilized manner and not become rowdy.

Phalguni Banerjee, Dr. B C Roy, Prof. Roger Plank, Dr. Hirak Sen
Dipankar Pal and Darren Byrne

CES's office in Salt Lake: In the late afternoon of Monday 14 March, Roger, Darren and I visited the office of Consulting Engineering Services Pvt. Ltd. in alt Lake where we were received by Dr. B. C. Roy, Executive Director, Dipankar Paul, Executive Director and Phalguni Banerjee. Later they met and interacted with some of the structural engineers of CES. First, CES made a presentation on the company profile which was of great interest. Then Prof. Plank made a presentation on Structural Fire Engineering, I spoke on the role of the Institution in advancing the art and science of structural engineering and Darren on routes to membership. These were followed by lively audience interaction.

Monica Ganguly, Sila Ghosal, Rupasree Basu, Kamala Choudhuri,
Kalpana Sen, Hirak Sen, Darren Byrne, Amitava Ghosal, K K Ganguly
Roger Plank, Manju Choudhuri and R N Basu

Reception at our home: In the evening of Monday 14 March, Roger and Darren joined a small group of members and distinguished non-member structural engineers and their wives over cocktails and canapes at our home. Amitava Ghosal a distinguished former member of the Institution joined the group with his wife Sila. Amitava Ghosal is the Director of Stup Consultants, which is one of the larger consulting firms in India with offices in many state capitals and also in several countries abroad. Similarly, Manju Choudhuri also a former member of the Institution joined with his wife Kamala. On the side, Darren  discussed with Amitava Ghosal and Manju Choudhuri the circumstances under which they had decided many years ago to discontinue payment of  the Institution's annual membership subscription. I keenly followed this discussion. It was a delightful evening. This ended a busy day packed with events. 

From right: Dr. B C Roy, Prof. Roger Plank and Jeremy Hall

Kolkata Metro E-W Line GC's office: 15 March morning, Roger, Darren and I visited the office of Kolkata Metro East-West Line: General Consultants - AECOM-Maunsell – Yachiyo – CES – Egis – LHPA at Hastings, Kolkata. We were received by Jeremy Hall, Project Director and Dr. B C Roy, Joint Project Director of the General Consultants, and other structural engineers and architects. Jeremy Hall made a presentation on the East-West Metro project. Prof. Plank spoke on Structural Engineering Fire, I  spoke on the role of the Institution in advancing the art and science of structural engineering and Darren spoke on the routes to membership of the Institution. These were followed by fruitful interaction with the audience.

Prof. Ajoy Ray, Tapan Roy, Darren Byrne, Prof. Roger Plank and Dr. Hirak Sen

Bengal Engineering and Science University: 15 March afternoon, Roger, Darren, Tapan Roy and I visited the Bengal Engineering and Science University. We were received first by the Vice Chancellor Prof. Ajoy K. Ray. Then by Prof. Gautam Bhattacharya of Civil Engineering and by the Institution's SLO Swaroop Das Chaudhuri. Prof. Plank made a presentation on the excitements in structural engineering. I made a presentation on a rewarding career in structural engineering in which I drew on my own career and cited the success stories of five other local members of the Institution, four of whom had in their day won the Andrews Kent Prize in Part C exam. This seemed to touch the right cord in the young student audience and ignite their minds. Darren spoke on the routes to membership of the Institution. These were followed by lively interaction with the audience and by tea and snacks hosted by the Institution. We then appointed a new SLO with effect from 01 June 2011 when Swaroop is due to pass out of BESU.

Seated: Dr. Hirak Sen, Prof. Roger Plank, G Prabhakar (President, IEI)
Madan Lal (Immediate Past President, IEI) and
S L Garg (Council Member, IEI)
Standing: Anoop Kumar (Dy Director, IEI), Amol Bora (Chairman, Pune
Local Centre), S B Sinha (Council Member, IEI), Darren Byrne, Dr. S
Nagabhusana Rao (Former Chairman of Andhra Pradesh State Centre),
Maj Gen R K Sanan, VSM (Secretary and Director General, IEI), and
R R Tanwar (Chairman, Ghaziabad Local Centre)

Institution of Engineers (India): 16 March morning, Roger, Darren and I visited the HQ of the Institution of Engineers India in Kolkata where we met with IEI President G Prabhakar, Immediate Past President Madan Lal, Secretary and Director General Maj. Gen. (Retd.) R K Sanan, VSM and several other senior members in the governance of IEI. President IEI thanked Prof. Plank and Darren Byrne for taking the time to visit IEI and especially thanked me for organizing the meeting. A video presentation on IEI's journey through past eight decades and more was made. It showed the very substantial infrastructure that IEI has built over the years to serve some 600,000+ members. IEI currently has cooperation agreements many other similar institutions including the American Society of Civil Engineers. The present status of the engineering profession globally in general and possible areas of co-operation between the two institutions in particular were discussed. A draft agreement for co-operation was tabled by IEI, which would be duly discussed at IStructE Executive Board and IStructE would get back to IEI in due course.

Darren Byrne, Prof. Saroj Mandal, Prof. Dipankar Chakravorty,
Prof. Sibapriya Mukherjee, Prof. Roger Plank, Prof. Somnath Ghosh,
Dr. Hirak Sen and Manoj Majumdar

Civil Engineering Department of Jadavpur University: 16 March afternoon, Roger, Darren, Manoj Majumdar and I visited the Civil Engineering Department of Jadavpur University. We were received first by the head of department Prof. Sibapriya Mukherjee. Then to an audience of students and faculty members Prof. Plank made a presentation on the excitements in structural engineering,  I made a presentation on a rewarding career in structural engineering and Darren on the routes to membership of the Institution. These presentations were followed by interactions with the audience and finally by tea and snacks hosted by the Institution. A new student liaison officer was appointed in lieu of the previous SLO who had passed out of JU.

Prof. Sibapriya Mukherjee, Dr. Hirak Sen, Prof. Roger Plank,
Manoj Majumdar, Darren Byrne and Prof. Pradip Narayan Ghosh

Vice Chancellor of Jadavpur University: 16 March in the early afternoon, Roger, Darren, Manoj Majumdar and I visited Prof. Pradip Narayan Ghosh, Vice Chancellor of Jadavpur University. We were joined by Prof. Sibapriya Mukherjee, Head of the Civil Engineering Department of JU. The discussion focused on the course contents taught in undergraduate civil engineering and architecture and whether these called for a review in order to be able to better fulfill the societal needs of the twenty-first century. Jadavpur University is where I earned my undergraduate degree in civil engineering in year 1962. Manoj Majumdar was my classmate at Jadavpur and he later earned the Andrews Kent Prize at the CM examination of the Institution and pursued a distinguished career ending as the Director General of Engineering at the Kolkata Municipal Corporation.

Dr. Hirak Sen, Prof. Roger Plank, Amitava Ghosal (Director, Stup),
Salil Roy, Darren Byrne and Utpal Ghosh

Stup Consultant's office in Kolkata: 16 March late afternoon, Roger, Darren and I visited the office of Stup Consultants Pvt. Ltd. in Kolkata where we were received by Amitava Ghosal, Director, Utpal Ghosh, and Salil Roy. First, Amitava Ghosal made a presentation on the company profile which was of great interest. Then Prof. Plank made a presentation on Structural Fire Engineering, I spoke on the role of IStructE and Darren on the routes to membership. These were followed by lively audience interaction.  Amitava Ghosal announced to the younger structural engineers in the audience that anybody passing the CM examination will be reimbursed the cost of taking examination and subsequently the annual membership fees as well. We felt that this would encourage younger structural engineers within the organization to take the call and embark on the route to membership of the institution.


Thus ended six very rewarding days of engagements. Before they left Roger and Darren told me that the visit outcome had far exceeded their expectations. This gave me a great deal of satisfaction.