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.
Request a Quote
In brief
TCR Engineering Services Pvt. Ltd., the NABL ISO/IEC 17025:2017 accredited materials testing, NDT and asset integrity company founded in Mumbai in 1973, with its laboratory and pan-India operations at Mahape, Navi Mumbai, and its group are led by Neelam Bafna, Paresh Haribhakti, Rohit Bafna and Viren Khandwala. The three operating entities, TCR Engineering, TCR Arabia and TCR Advanced, work across India, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait.
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.
- Founded 1973: by V.K. Bafna and Neelam Bafna.
- Neelam Bafna: Chairperson and Managing Director since 2013.
- Rohit Bafna: President. Viren Khandwala: Director.
- Ownership: family-owned since 1973 and woman-led since 2013.
- Partners: family-led, and open to long-term partners who share the mission; the institutional database stays with the group.
The firm has been family-led since 1973 and woman-led since 2013, and is open to long-term partners who share its mission; the institutional database stays with the group.
-
V.K. Bafna
(1940 to 2013), Founder and Chairman Emeritus
TCR Engineering
-
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
-
Samir Choudhury
General Manager, TCR Eastern
TCR Eastern
-
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
Head, Radiography NDT; 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
-
Ashwant Singh
Assistant General Manager, Project Management
TCR Engineering
-
Anil K. Lund
Head of Digitalisation and AI Initiatives
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, Fatigue and Robotics
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 the Evolve by TCR page holds the training academy leadership.
- TCR Advanced Engineering: the Vadodara consulting bench and the expert consultant network.
- TCR Arabia: the in-Kingdom leadership.
- Evolve by TCR: the training academy leadership.
Group Headcount and Distribution
The TCR group employs 750+ people: 400+ at TCR Engineering, 200+ at TCR Advanced and 150+ at TCR Arabia, with six ASNT NDT Level III authorities in-house.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Group employees (consolidated) | 750+ |
| TCR Engineering employees (within the 750+) | 400+ |
| TCR Advanced employees (including consultants) | 200+ |
| TCR Arabia NDT professionals (of its 150+ employees) | 100+ |
| Field crews, in-situ metallographic replica | 12 dedicated teams |
| ASNT NDT Level III credentials in-house | 6 (Shemi Bhaskaran for RT/LPT/MPI; Vishal Gherwada for UT; Nagesh Shinde at TCR Arabia for RT/UT/LPT/MPI; Abdul Waheed, NDT Manager, at TCR Arabia; Mohamed Mubeen for RT, Radiation Safety Officer, at TCR Arabia; Nikhil Sabhaya at TCR Advanced for ET/UT/PT/MT/VT) |
| NDT Level II field crew (SNT-TC-1A) | Multiple |
| BARC Level-1 radiography certifications | 14 |
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, five-method ASNT Level III holder (ET, UT, PT, MT and VT)
- Chiral Patel, CP Division Lead, 20+ years cathodic protection
- Anil K. Lund, Head of Digitalisation and AI Initiatives
- Manoj Prabhakar Singh, Department Head, Corrosion Testing
- Parul Hariya, Head of Civil and Building Materials 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, with TCR Advanced Engineering
- 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)
All nine consultants are named and on call to TCR engagements.
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-led since its founding in 1973 and woman-led since 2013, and is open to long-term partners who share its mission.
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 six ASNT NDT Level III credential holders sit in-house across the three operating entities.
Who leads TCR Advanced Engineering and TCR Arabia?
Paresh Haribhakti co-founded TCR Advanced Engineering Pvt. Ltd., Vadodara, with V.K. Bafna and leads it as Managing Director; he is also Chief Metallurgist and Global Technical Consultant to the TCR group. TCR Arabia, the Dammam joint venture with GAS Arabian Services, is led by Managing Director Khalid J. Al-Dabal, with Syed Ameen Hassan as Country Manager.