Bhattacharya pips Ganguly to head BARC

Bhattacharya pips Ganguly to head BARC
D N MOORTY

MUMBAI, APRil 3: Bishweshwar Bhattacharya, director, Chemical Engineering and Technology Group and the architect addressing India’s uranium needs, took over as the director of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre on Wednesday from Dr Anil Kakodkar. After his elevation to chairman, Atomic Energy Commission and secretary, Department of Atomic Energy, Kakodkar had continued as director, BARC thus far.

Bhattacharya pipped two senior aspirants to the post. One was A K Anand, director, Reactor Project Group, from the fifth batch of the BARC training school, and Dr S K Sikka, technical coordinator and head, international media relations, of the fourth batch, from which incumbent Bhattacharya himself is. The appointment was also a setback of sorts to yet another contender, the CEO of Nuclear Fuel Complex, Hyderabad, Dr C Ganguly, who was tipped to actually succeed Kakodkar, given his comparative youth: he has 10 years of service left compared to Bhattacharya’s year in balance. Bhattacharya is due for retirement in April unless he gets an extension.

Sources say the preference given to Bhattacharya largely relates to the fact that seniority was considered the principal criterion so as to maintain a semblance of status quo. But in terms of seniority, Sikka ought to have made it. In fact, initial anticipation revolved around him, given his significant role in India’s Pokharan-2 tests.

Sources pointed out Anand was also a key contender. But, he is in charge of a critical division. Despite claims to the contrary, the prestigious Advanced Technology Vessel Project depends on developing an LWR (Light Water Reactor) that fits the submarine hull, and Anand’s brief was to come up with an answer.

The highly secretive project is supposed to have overcome the problems relating to fitting the LWR to the submarine’s hull being built at Hazira in Gujarat, known as Project 1402. That Anand was left out indicates, say detractors, that all is not yet well with the ATV project.

Sources say Ganguly, currently on an official visit to Vietnam, has only to bide his time. At the end of Bhattacharya’s term, the mantle will unequivocally fall on him.Apart from his pioneering work on uranium at the national level, Bhattacharya was also responsible for the high speed rotor technology needed for production of strategic materials. The new BARC director is credited with taking India closer to total indigenisation in the production of strategic metals, an area in which Ganguly is considered an expert.

Bhattacharya has also been entrusted with the desalination project linked to nuclear power plants, the prototype of which is coming up at Kalpakkam.A Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering, Bhattacharya was recognised by the nation for his services to critical nuclear fields when the President awarded him a Padma Shri.