V.K. Bafna
(1940 to 2013), Founder and Chairman Emeritus
TCR Engineering
Who We Are
Leadership and People
V.K. Bafna founded the firm in 1973 and led it for four decades. The bench he built is still named in full, including a technical head thirty-four years into materials testing, corrosion engineering and root-cause failure analysis.
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Overview
The organisation runs three operating entities (TCR Engineering, TCR Arabia, TCR Advanced), one training subsidiary (Evolve by TCR), one strategic equity investment (into partner companies). The senior bench is named, credentialled, and accessible. The expert consultant network at TCR Advanced is a structural differentiator.
The Leadership Team
TCR Engineering Services Pvt. Ltd. was founded in 1973 by V.K. Bafna and Neelam Bafna. Leadership passed to Neelam Bafna in 2013 as Chairperson and Managing Director, with Rohit Bafna as President and Viren Khandwala as Director.
The firm has been family-owned since 1973 and woman-led since 2013, through a transition with no private-equity recapitalisation, no break-up of the operating entities, and no sale of the institution.
Neelam Bafna
Chairperson and Managing Director
TCR EngineeringVideo
Paresh Haribhakti
Managing Director, TCR Advanced; Chief Metallurgist and Global Technical Consultant to the TCR Group
TCR Advanced EngineeringVideo
Rohit Bafna
President
TCR EngineeringVideo
Viren Khandwala
Director
TCR EngineeringVideo
TCR Engineering Operations Team
Avinash Tambewagh
Technical Head
TCR EngineeringVideo
Lalit Surve
General Manager, Operations and Finance
TCR EngineeringVideo
Dr. Ajay Essampally
Senior Metallurgist and Head of Quality Assurance; NADCAP AC7101 Materials Testing Lead
TCR Engineering
Manoj Prabhakar Singh
Department Head, Corrosion Testing
TCR EngineeringVideo
Parul Hariya
Head of Civil and Building Materials Testing
TCR Engineering
Shaila Kadam
Head of Chemical Analysis Testing
TCR Engineering
Shailendra Singh
Head, NDT and Third-Party Inspection
TCR Engineering
Shemi Bhaskaran
ASNT NDT Level III (RT, MT, PT); RSO (BARC Level II)
TCR Engineering
Atul Yadav
HR Manager, Public Relations and Government Liaison
TCR EngineeringVideo
Hemant Sakpal
Business Development Manager
TCR Engineering
Samir Choudhury
General Manager, TCR Eastern
TCR Eastern
Ashwant Singh
Assistant General Manager, Project Management
TCR Engineering
Anil K. Lund
Digitalisation Expert; Bangalore Operations Team Partner
TCR Engineering
Mukesh Kumar
Senior Metallurgist, Metallography and Corrosion
TCR Engineering
Manoj Bhandari
Senior Engineer, Mechanical Testing
TCR Engineering
Mohd. Rehan Baig
Assistant Technical Head, Advanced Testing
TCR Engineering
Aarti Bhawari
Senior Chemist, Chemical Analysis
TCR Engineering
Abhay Dhuri
NDT Operations Manager; RSO (BARC Level II), ISNT Level II (UT, MT, PT)
TCR Engineering
Sagar Salvi
Head of Accounts and Purchase
TCR Engineering
Rafi Ahmad Baig
Senior Engineer, Mechanical and Fatigue Workshop
TCR Engineering
Nishat Baig
Laboratory Coordinator and Witness-Test Scheduling
TCR Engineering
Harshal Tambe
Administration and Accounts Executive, NDT
TCR Engineering
Umar Ahmad Baig
AI Transformation Architect
TCR Engineering
TCR Engineering names 28 leaders across TCR Engineering, TCR Advanced and the group functions, 28 of them with a full biography on their own page and 8 on video. Every name below carries a role, an entity, and the work that person signs for. The firm has been family-owned since 1973 and woman-led since 2013.
- V.K. Bafna, (1940 to 2013), Founder and Chairman Emeritus, TCR Engineering
- Neelam Bafna, Chairperson and Managing Director, TCR Engineering
- Rohit Bafna, President, TCR Engineering
- Viren Khandwala, Director, TCR Engineering
- Paresh Haribhakti, Managing Director, TCR Advanced; Chief Metallurgist and Global Technical Consultant to the TCR Group, TCR Advanced Engineering
- Avinash Tambewagh, Technical Head, TCR Engineering
- Dr. Ajay Essampally, Senior Metallurgist and Head of Quality Assurance; NADCAP AC7101 Materials Testing Lead, TCR Engineering
- Manoj Prabhakar Singh, Department Head, Corrosion Testing, TCR Engineering
- Parul Hariya, Head of Civil and Building Materials Testing, TCR Engineering
- Shaila Kadam, Head of Chemical Analysis Testing, TCR Engineering
- Shailendra Singh, Head, NDT and Third-Party Inspection, TCR Engineering
- Shemi Bhaskaran, ASNT NDT Level III (RT, MT, PT); RSO (BARC Level II), TCR Engineering
- Lalit Surve, General Manager, Operations and Finance, TCR Engineering
- Atul Yadav, HR Manager, Public Relations and Government Liaison, TCR Engineering
- Hemant Sakpal, Business Development Manager, TCR Engineering
- Samir Choudhury, General Manager, TCR Eastern, TCR Eastern
- Ashwant Singh, Assistant General Manager, Project Management, TCR Engineering
- Anil K. Lund, Digitalisation Expert; Bangalore Operations Team Partner, TCR Engineering
- Mukesh Kumar, Senior Metallurgist, Metallography and Corrosion, TCR Engineering
- Manoj Bhandari, Senior Engineer, Mechanical Testing, TCR Engineering
- Mohd. Rehan Baig, Assistant Technical Head, Advanced Testing, TCR Engineering
- Aarti Bhawari, Senior Chemist, Chemical Analysis, TCR Engineering
- Abhay Dhuri, NDT Operations Manager; RSO (BARC Level II), ISNT Level II (UT, MT, PT), TCR Engineering
- Sagar Salvi, Head of Accounts and Purchase, TCR Engineering
- Rafi Ahmad Baig, Senior Engineer, Mechanical and Fatigue Workshop, TCR Engineering
- Nishat Baig, Laboratory Coordinator and Witness-Test Scheduling, TCR Engineering
- Harshal Tambe, Administration and Accounts Executive, NDT, TCR Engineering
- Umar Ahmad Baig, AI Transformation Architect, TCR Engineering
Group Company Leadership
The senior benches of the group companies are carried on their own pages: the TCR Advanced Engineering page holds the Vadodara consulting bench and the expert consultant network, the TCR Arabia page holds the in-Kingdom leadership and senior bench, and the Evolve by TCR page holds the training academy leadership.
Group Headcount and Distribution
The group bench at a glance:
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Group employees (consolidated) | 750+ |
| TCR Engineering employees (within the 750+) | 400+ |
| TCR Advanced employees (including consultants) | 200+ |
| TCR Arabia NDT professionals | 100+ |
| Field crews, in-situ metallographic replica | 12 dedicated teams |
| ASNT NDT Level III credentials in-house | 4 (Shemi Bhaskaran for RT/LPT/MPI; Vishal Gherwada for UT; Nagesh Shinde at TCR Arabia for RT/UT/LPT/MPI; Nikhil Sabhaya at TCR Advanced for ET/UT/PT/MT) |
| ASNT NDT Level II field crew | Multiple |
| BARC Level-1 radiography certifications | 11+ |
The People
The senior bench is named, credentialled, and accessible, across TCR Engineering, TCR Advanced, and TCR Arabia.
The Senior Team
- Paresh Haribhakti, TCR Advanced Managing Director (the ASM author bench)
- Avinash Tambewagh, Technical Head, TCR Engineering
- Ketankumar Upadhyaya and Gopul Patel, TCR Advanced reliability and AiOM leads
- Nikhil Sabhaya, four-method ASNT Level III holder
- Chiral Patel, CP Division Lead, 20+ years cathodic protection
- Anil K. Lund, AI and Digitalization Head, Bangalore Operations Team Head
- Manoj Singh, Department Head, Corrosion Testing
- Parul Hariya, Department Head, Civil Testing
- TCR Arabia: Khalid J. Al-Dabal, Managing Director; Syed Ameen Hassan, Country Manager; Abdul Waheed, NDT Manager (ASNT Level III); Syed Ahsan Ali, Metallurgist (API 510, 653, 571, 580 certified)
The expert consultant bench, 30 to 47 years of operating experience
- Prof. Awadhesh Kumar Singh, Power Plant and Turbine (ex-BHEL, ABB, ERDA)
- Ashok Kumar Srivastava, Fertiliser Asset Integrity (ex-Dangote, Indorama Eleme)
- Dr. M.M. Pandya, Corrosion (200+ industrial cases)
- M.N. Patel, SEM and EDS (33 years of teaching)
- Dr. P.B. Joshi, ex-Head, Metallurgical Engineering, MS University Vadodara (50+ research publications, ASM book co-author)
- Subrahmanya Bhat, Corrosion (32 years at ONGC, patent holder)
- Narendra Kumar Roy, FEA and FFS
- Dinesh Butala, Process Safety (ex-ED GSFC, 50+ technical papers)
- J.N. Agarwal, Cathodic Protection and Pipeline Integrity (33 years at GAIL, ICorr Level 4 Fellow, AMPP Corrosion Awareness Award 2023)
No competitor lab carries this depth of named expertise on call.
Frequently asked questions
Who leads TCR Engineering?
Neelam Bafna has been Chairperson and Managing Director since 2013, with Rohit Bafna as President and Viren Khandwala as Director. The firm has been family-owned since its founding in 1973 and woman-led since 2013, with no private-equity recapitalisation and no break-up of the operating entities.
Who founded TCR Engineering?
V.K. Bafna (1940-2013), a gold-medallist metallurgist with an M.Eng from the University of Toronto and an M.S. in Industrial Management from Clarkson College, founded TCR Engineering Services in 1973 and led it for four decades. Leadership passed to Neelam Bafna in 2013.
Who leads the technical and quality functions?
Avinash Tambewagh is Technical Head, with over 34 years across materials testing, corrosion engineering and failure analysis. Dr. Ajay Essampally, Senior Metallurgist and Head of Quality Assurance, leads the NABL ISO/IEC 17025:2017 assessments and the NADCAP AC7101 Materials Testing accreditation, alongside the BIS, IBR, PDIL and RITES audits.
How large is the group's technical bench?
The group employs 750+ people: 400+ at TCR Engineering, 200+ at TCR Advanced including consultants, and 150+ at TCR Arabia. Twelve dedicated field teams run in-situ metallographic replica work, and four ASNT NDT Level III credential holders sit in-house across the three operating entities.