KOLKATA: As FIFA World Cup fever grips soccer fans across the globe, West Bengal has a vital role to play this time in the 29-day extravaganza. An electrical component manufacturing company, BMC Electroplast Pvt Ltd, an MSME unit in Thakurpukur in Kolkata’s southern fringe, supplied around 3,000 transformers to Qatar. The gadgets will help secure power distribution in the stadium and related infrastructure. A company official said nearly 50 per cent of the total voltage and current transformers required for the soccer event was supplied by the company.
Transformers are critical components in the power distribution system and important elements in the protection chain. The MSME unit manufactures a wide range of electrical products. “It is not typical transformers for power distribution, which we see along the roadsides. This gadget is placed in the switchgear boards, underground electrical rooms below the stadium, and it controls internal power distribution, consumption and protection. This type of gadget is very important. Our company had to invest more than Rs 70 crore for supplying the gadget for Qatar,’’ said Subodh Kumar Banerjee, founder member and senior director of the company.
The Kolkata-based company started visiting Qatar since 2014 when the gulf country was given the responsibility of hosting World Cup 2022. “When I visited Qatar in 2014, there was no infrastructure. It was a desert. We supplied the transformers via Tamco Switchgear (Malaysia), an erstwhile L&T company. Besides, our company was among the list of approved vendors of Malaysia’s electric supply authority. Our company is a vendor of Tamco and we have worked with them before,” said Banerjee.
The transformers built in Thakurpukur were approved by Qatar Electricity & Water Corporation (QEWC) in-charge of the implementation of an integrated infrastructure for the soccer tournament. Banerjee said getting the transformers approved by the concerned agency in Qatar was not an easy task.
“Designing the sample and getting it approved by the Corporation in Qatar was a tedious process. It was because stringent norms of the QEWC. But finally, our product was approved. I had to visit the country on three occasions,” he added. The founder member of the company was supposed to be present at the inaugural event but he could not because of an accident last year causing a fracture on his knee.