“Perfection is the definitive 100% right way of doing anything” and it is achieved rarely while “Excellence is an attempt to perform a task in the best way possible”, and something that all humans can aspire to. Ragu aspired to be excellent, and Rotary Saicity has rightly recognized his excellence, expressed Vijay Mohan, Founder of Pricol while felicitating Rtn.Er. C.J.Ragunathan, MD, Design Forum India at an award ceremony.
Rotary Club of Coimbatore Saicity bestowed Rtn.Er. C.J.Ragunathan, with Vocational Excellence Award recently. Vijay Mohan, Founder, Pricol was the Chief Guest of this ceremony, Rtn.Rajasekhar Srinivasan, Dist.Governor, RI Dist.3201 was the Guest of Honor.
In his address, Vijay Mohan shared that in 1998, Pricol had the need to set up a second plant in Coimbatore, and a 20-acre plot was identified in the district. The segment of the land was like a slope, and Pricol’s Management thought that rather than engage experienced architects it would be better to have young minds to get fresh look.
The Company then enquired and shortlisted 3 upcoming architects in the city and held a small competition among them. The mandate given to them was to make a rough study of the land and illuminate Pricol how the 20-acre plot will be segmented and what portions could be used for their current requirement and how the rest could be developed for future needs.
Vijay Mohan said Ragu came out well ahead of the other two architects. He added that Ragu took the mandate very seriously and he put his heart and soul to deliver a visionary plan for the Plant.
He shared two incidents that highlights Ragu’s excellence. In 2004 Pricol had asked him to design a three story building at one of their sites with very specific requirements.
As the requirements needed modern solutions, Ragu took it as a challenge and updated himself with a new post tensioning technique (which was something totally new to Covai back in ’04) to meet the conditions set forth by Pricol. He did it successfully and it became the first building in 2004 to use post-tensioning. The building drew many students and scholars of engineering/architecture to study how it was made.
In 2006 Pricol through its CSR program, established Gas Fire crematorium. It was first of its kind in Tamil Nadu. It didn’t use LPG but gas generated from waste wood and Seemai Karuvelamaram. It was also made by Ragu, and he did it in an aesthetic and cost-efficient manner, according Mr.Mohan.
He appreciated Ragu for taking the path of excellence and delivering excellence, and he commended Rotary Saicity for recognizing these qualities in him and conferring the Vocational Excellence Award.
Others present in the event were Rtn.Rajasekhar Srinivasan, Dist.Governor, RI Dist.3201, Er.K.Rajavel, Builder, Vels Engineers, Umesh B. Rao, Former National President, ACCE (I), T.S.Ramani Sankar, Chief Architect, Sankar Associates, Rtn.AV Pathy, PDG, RI Dist.3201 and the office bearers of Rotary Saicity.