Level measurement in India is synonymous with Pune Techtrol, a Pune based manufacturer of Level Measurement Instruments for liquids and solids. On 27th September 2019, Techtrol celebrated its Foundation Day. We met with Nandlal Khatan, the 74-year-old Founder and Managing Director of Pune Techtrol Private Limited, who claims to have the youngest heart in his organization. We bring you an exclusive inspiring story about his 35 years of entrepreneurship.
“I feel proud that we have completed 35 years in a very competitive market. We are continuously innovating our product range and giving it to our Indian customers at a very competitive rate, backed by a good customer service”, says Mr. Khatan about his venture. He adds, “We also handhold our customers for the effective use of our products”. Today, Pune Techtrol is supplying not only to Indian customers but in South East Asia, Middle East, and Europe.
Pune Techtrol manufactures Gauges, Switches, Transmitters and complete systems for Level Measurement of liquids and solids. Apart from standard products, they also manufacture customised products for critical applications. “We are approved and supplying to many Indian and international manufacturers as well as to defence, space, and nuclear power organisations. Techtrol products are also certified by several reputed agencies”.
Techtrol products are widely recognised for their quality, accuracy, performance and timely delivery
“The products we turn out are trusted for quality and performance from all our customers. We have now come to a position and developed capabilities to undertake turnkey projects for process automation, which include design and engineering. Techtrol products are technology-driven, and you can find level measurement instruments Industry4.0 in our offerings.”
Being a frontrunner in level measurement and automation, innovation and technology are its core strengths. Hence, most of its products today are IIoT enabled and compatible with Industry 4.0 environment. Techtrol products help in production maintenance, utility monitoring, optimizing packaging, logistics, and supply chain management, taking quicker and smarter decisions, minimizing cost and boosting productivity.
With the help of IIoT, Techtrol is bringing Level Measurement at fingertips. Initially, analog or digital data is read from a sensor from the real environment. Then a controller processes the data by digitalizing it using a standard protocol. Here comes, the innovative Modbus RTU IIoT Gateway which transmits the received data to cloud acting as a bridge between sensors and cloud. Once the data gets to the cloud, a software starts processing on it and makes it available on any device through URL or Mobile App for accessing and taking action.
I am fortunate to have a team of very good people around Techtrol and to achieve the goal of having a happy organisation. Today, I am just coordinating and all our managers are doing the actual work. We are privileged to have more than 10 people who are working with us today also from the very beginning
Mr. Khatan completed his BE Electrical from one of India’s first and premium engineering colleges, College of Engineering Pune (CoEP), and passed out in 1969. “Ours was the first four-year semester batch which completed 50 years. At that time Air force and Indian Army used to come for campus recruitment, but hailing from a business family, my aim was to start my own manufacturing unit one day”, recollects Mr. Khatan.
He took his first job as a Quality Engineer at Ashok Sunil & Company, Thane which was into the manufacturing of Solenoid and Pneumatic Control Valves. From the technical side, he moved into a sales and marketing job with Toshniwal Brothers Private Limited, Mumbai where he continued for the next one year, before entering into his entrepreneurship.
In 1973 with Mr. Ashok Pandit he ventured into the manufacturing of flow meters under Eureka Engineers. “When I look back 35 years ago, most of my friends had gone to the US for pursuing their professional career. I and my partner took 4 lathes and started our work in an industrial gala at Lower Parel, Mumbai. We thought of starting with job work and simultaneously putting our efforts to develop own products. But within six months it was learned that we were making a huge loss and no constructive development was taking place. We stopped all the job works and within 3 months we came out with our first product, and turned a new leaf into our manufacturing journey.”
In 1984 under the brand name of Techtrol, Mr. Khatan diversified into the manufacturing Level Measuring instruments. Eureka Industrial Equipments Private Limited today is a very reputed manufacturing company of Flow Meters, and Mr. Khatan resigned during 1996 to fully concentrate on the development of Pune Techtrol Private Limited.
Recently, the golden jubilee of the 1969 batch of CoEP was celebrated at Turf Club, Pune. “It’s also a fact when we met recently our college mates of CoEP, Pune to celebrate our 50 years, the classmates who stayed back in India were doing incredibly well, which was a proud moment of realising of taking the right decision before 35 years.”
The 1969 batch of engineers donated a corpus of 1.10 crore, which will be used for the institutional development program and to renovate the mechanical hall which will give a facelift to 30 student clubs of CoEP students.
An MoU was signed between the 1969 batch and the Alumni Association which is celebrating its 25 years since its foundation. Mr. Khatan feels proud to be part of the 1969 batch and this pioneering step for the development of one of India’s highly prestigious engineering institutions. Terming the step as a landmark in the Silver Jubilee year, Subash Deshpande, president of the association says, “It will inspire other alumni for similar gesture for the betterment of CoEP.”
Techtrol being synonymous with the faster adoption of newer technology is also gearing up to welcome its second-generation entrepreneurship in its leadership. After completing his Engineering in Industrial Electronics and Management, Mayank Khatan has joined with Mr. Khatan with Pune Techtrol. From school days, during his holidays Mayank used to visit the shop floor and was always passionate about joining the company, remembers Mr. Khatan.
“Mayank is very passionate about his work, and I am sure he is going to take Techtrol to newer heights. He is incorporating modern management techniques and innovative processes to improve our productivity. I am confident that he will lead the company to a better future”, says a proud father.
